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The First Nickels
 | By Tom LaMarre, Coins
November 05, 2008 |
On April 11, 1866, the 39th Congress passed an act authorizing the first five-cent nickel. President Andrew Johnson, Abraham Lincoln's successor, signed the bill on May 19, 1866.
It had only been a year since Lincoln's death, which might explain the gloomy imagery on the nickel's obverse. One critic said the shield and branches resembled a tombstone surmounted by a cross and weeping willows.
The reverse also had its critics. Engraver James B. Longacre placed a large number 5 at the center, in a circle of stars and rays. Rumor had it the design represented the Confederate "stars and bars" and was the work of a rebel sympathizer.
The nickel was a hit anyway. The first examples were rushed into production.
"The nickel three and five-cent coins can now be had," the June 30, 1866, issue of the Bangor Daily Whig and Courier reported.
People hardly had a chance to get used to the coin before the Mint modified the design, eliminating the reverse rays to prolong the life of the dies. The Feb. 19, 1867, issue of the New York Times said the five-cent nickel "has not the rays" which in the previous year's issue had appeared on the reverse of the coin.
Joseph Wharton's nickel works in Camden, N.J., supplied nearly all of the nickel used by the U.S. Mint. The five-cent nickel had an intrinsic value of only one cent.
As a Philadelphia newspaper later noted, the coin was composed of one-fourth nickel and three-fourths copper and was merely a government promise to pay. The Manitoba Daily Free Press said the wide difference between the intrinsic value of the five-cent nickel and its face value brought a "handsome revenue" to the government.
Counterfeiters profited, too. In July 1867, nickel counterfeiters were arrested in Cincinnati. In 1875, John Rivers was hauled into a Chicago court and charged with passing and attempting to pass counterfeit nickels made from lead.
In 1876, the Boston Globe said it was well known that the nickel five-cent piece had been extensively counterfeited, but exactly how it was done and by whom was a mystery to detectives.
Nickel production went into a tailspin in the late 1870s. Coins that had been hoarded during the Civil War were returning to circulation, and fewer nickels were needed to redeem Fractional Currency notes.
In March 1881, nickel production was temporarily suspended on orders from Washington. In November 1881, however, the Daily Kennebec Journal, published in Augusta, Maine, reported that a large number would be coined "owing to the small amount of five-cent nickels in the Treasury."
The Philadelphia Mint churned out more than 11 million nickels in 1882. Many of them were shipped to California, where strong demand was reported in September and October.
In Galveston, Texas, there weren't enough nickels to go around, so streetcar tickets were used as a substitute. The April 13, 1882, issue of the Galveston Daily News asked:
"Why cannot Galveston preserve nickels for making change - like other cities. Everybody complains of the car-ticket nuisance. Everybody has been complaining about it for years. Still the car ticket holds its own against all competitors as a medium of exchange."
The Shield nickel gave way to the Liberty Head nickel in 1883.
Although there are many scarce Shield nickels, the 1866- 1869 and the 1881 and 1882 are valued at $21 or less in Very Good-8, according to Coin Prices.
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