1942 Wartime Nickel

The Jefferson nickel has been the five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint since 1938, when it replaced the Buffalo nickel. U.S. nickels struck from 1942 to 1945 bearing a mint mark were copper-silver-manganese alloy, as nickel was a strategic World War II material and it would not require vending machines to be adjusted. Until 2004 this coin’s obverse image by Felix Schlag bore a bust of founding father and third U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. This coin’s reverse bears the design competition’s required Monticello, Jefferson’s house, and is still the Schlag original.