FREE: 1942 Pre-War Jefferson Nickel

The listing, 1942 Pre-War Jefferson Nickel has ended.

There is an interesting story about the designer of this US Nickel Coin featuring Thomas Jefferson. The Mint sponsored a contest with a prize of $1000 for the best design of the new nickel (five cent) coin.

A German immigrant named Felix Schlag, who had only been a United States citizen for 9 years, won the contest from among 390 contestants.

The design of the US nickel remained virtually unchanged until 2003. There was only a slight change to the design of the steps of Monticello in 1939.
The Jefferson Nickel is made of 25% nickel and 75% copper. There was a brief period of time however, when these coins were made of 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese. This was during World War II.

During the war, it was hard for the US Mint to get nickel to make the coins out of. It was being heavily used in the war effort.

So, some changes had to be made. This resulted in a nickel that did not contain any nickel.

These "wartime" nickels were issued from October 1942 through December 1945.