The Civil War was one of the most tumultuous periods in the history of the US Mint. During the war, citizens of the Union and the Confederacy hoarded coins as a means of preserving wealth. The future of their nation uncertain, people held onto anything with intrinsic value. For the US Mint this meant a reduction in the number of circulating coins. One such coin was the half-dime, the official five-cent piece at the time. Because of its silver content, it was among the first coins to be hoarded. As a way to introduce a five-cent piece into circulation, the US Mint began producing a new coin in 1866 that was composed of 75% copper and 25% nickel, the latter inspiring its common name, the nickel.

The first five-cent coin to be produced was the Shield nickel. By the time the shield design was replaced in 1883, nearly 1.5 million copies of the coin had been struck. The Shield nickel was followed by the Liberty nickel, produced until 1913, and subsequently the Indian Head Buffalo nickel. The Indian Head nickel featured the profile of a Native American on its obverse and an American bison (mistakenly called a buffalo) on its reverse. A number of different varieties of this coin exist. It was produced over a 26-year span, except in the years 1922, 1932, and 1933 due to economic recessions.

In 1938, the US Mint announced a public competition for a new nickel design with a prize of $1000 for the winner. Felix Schlag, a German immigrant, came up with the winning design and soon after the Jefferson nickel went into production. The new coin showed a profile of Thomas Jefferson on the obverse and a view of his Virginia estate, Monticello, on the reverse. Except during the years 1942-1945, the coin was unchanged until 2003. In the war years, the coin’s metal content was altered in order to preserve US supplies of nickel. In nickel’s stead, silver and manganese were used. In 2004 and 2005 a number of new nickel designs were introduced as part of the Westward Journey series. The new designs depicted scenes from the Lewis and Clark expedition as a way to mark the bicentennial of its undertaking. In 2006, Monticello was returned to the reverse and a new obverse with a forward-facing portrait of Jefferson was adopted.