Throughout American history, we have had a strong desire for a five cent piece, which was carried out through the half dime and the nickel. Although they both have a face value of five cents, there are many differences between the two coins as their origin, composition, size, and original purpose are vastly different and are very interesting to study. One of the best ways to see that the difference between the half dime and the nickel series is to actually see them, so below are depictions of each major design change. The Half Dime SeriesAbove is an image of a pattern "Bust" half dime from 1792, where this design was only minted in 1792. Above is an image of a flowing hair half dime which were minted from 1794-1795. Above is an imagee of a draped bust half dime, small eagle which were minted from 1796-1797 Above is an image of a dreppd bust half dime with a large eagle, which were minted from 1800 until 1805. Above is an image of a capped bust half dime, which were minted from 1829 until 1837. Above is an image of a seated half dime which were mited from 1838 until 1873. The Five Cent Nickel Series Above is an image of a shield nickel which were produced from 1866 until1883. There are two major design variations of this coin, being the "with rays" and "without rays" varieties. every shield nickel that was produced in 1866 have rays on the reverse, and some of the coins that were minted during the earlier parts of 1867 have rays as well. After that point, the rays were removed due to difficulty that the rays brought when striking the coins, where they required the dies to be replaced very frequently. In order to increase the amount of time that they could use the ides to strike coins, they removed the rays until the end of the series. Above is an image of a liberty nickel which were minted from 1883 until 1913. In 1883 there is a "cents" and "no cents" variety where in the early part of 1883 the nickel did not have the word cents on the reverse, which was quickly added on during that year. Amazingly, people thought the without cents variety would be a great rarity, which caused many people to hoard them in mint state grades, which makes a mint state "no cents" liberty nickel relatively inexpensive. Above is an image of a buffalo nickel which were minted from 1913 until 1938. The coin above is a Jefferson nickel which were first minted in 1938 and are still produced. Interestingly, throughout the series lifetime there have been a few major design changes with the westward journey commemorative circulation series being produced throughout 2004 and 2005. In 2005 the obverse of the nickel also changed with Jefferson facing right instead of left, and in 2006 the position of Jefferson was again changed where he facing forward which is the obverse that is still present on the coins today.
The basic history behind the half dime and the nickel are two completely different things, where their creation came about for two completely different reasons. The half dime is a coin that was based on the dime and was first minted in so the American population could have a five cent piece to use in commerce. On the other hand, the five cent nickel was first produced out of necessity. During the civil war, people hoarded silver coins which lead to the government releasing fractional paper currency notes, where three and five cent denominations were used quite frequently (postage cost three cents at the time). They were not liked by the general public due to their low quality and small denomination, so the government released three and five cent nickels to replace them. Another major difference between the pieces are their composition, and sizes. Half dimes are actually composed primarily of silver where they have a composition of 90% silver and 10% copper, whereas five cent nickels have a composition of 75% copper and just 25% nickel. In fact, the reason why a nickel is called a nickel is because of its nickel like appearance and not its actual composition. Another major difference between the half dime and the nickel is the sizes of the coin. A nickel weighs about five grams, whereas the typicall half dime only weiged about 1.5 grams. Silver is worth more on a per ounce basis than coper anc nickel, so it took a lot less metal to produce a silver half dime than it did to produce a copper and nickel five cent piece. Despite the differences between these two coins that were present, they were even minted at the same time during the late 1860s and early 1870s! The half dime and the nickel are both very interesting coins to study, especially when taking into consideration their similarities and differences. Interestingly, there is a similar situation that arose with the silver and nickel three cent piece, which is another topic for another article. Have fun collecting! file:///C:/Users/brand/Downloads/google1e750597dd8642a3%20(3).html
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Author: Brandon Spiegel.
Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
Archives
January 2019
Categories
All
Categories
All
|