In the middle of 1938, following the ever-popular Buffalo Nickel, the Jefferson Nickel was released, designed by Felix Schlag. The obverse featured a side-on bust of Jefferson, and the reverse his Virginia estate, Monticello. Made of a copper-nickel alloy, the nickel's composition was changed in mid-1942 due to World War II demands. The so-called Wartime nickels were made of 56% copper, 35% silver, and 9% manganese. In 1946, the original composition was returned to the nickel.

The Jefferson Nickel remained unchanged until 2004, when the U.S. Mint began the Westward Journey Nickel Series. In 2004, the obverse remained unchanged, with two reverses being minted, each for half a year. The two designs were the Peace Medal Nickel, modeled after a Peace Medal commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition featuring two hands shaking, and the Keelboat Nickel, which features a keelboat transporting the Corps of Discovery members as they trekked through the uncharted Louisiana Territory. At the front of the boat are the leaders of the Corps, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
In 2005, the Obverse of the nickel was also changed, with a modernized portrait of Jefferson and the word "Liberty" written in his script handwriting. The first nickel of the year was a Buffalo Nickel, featuring an American Buffalo (bison) which was native to the Western Territories. The second nickel of the year--and the last of the Westward Journey Series--was the Ocean View Nickel which depicts the Pacific Ocean and has the words from William Lewis' diary, "Ocean in view! O! The joy!" Controversially, the Mint changed the spelling of Ocean from Clark's "Ocian" to the standard, modern spelling "Ocean."

In 2006, the reverse of the nickel returned to the Monticello depicted for so many years prior. The reverse, though, was changed again to show a head-on, not side-on, portrait of Thomas Jefferson. Also included was, as with the 2005 nickel, Jefferson's script writing of the word "Liberty."

Nickels

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