The Jefferson Nickel was minted from 1938 through 2004. The coin was designed by Felix Schlag, who won a US Mint sponsored contest with his design. The obverse design features a bust of Thomas Jefferson, while the reverse features his Virginia estate, Monticello. Besides a slight modification to the steps of Monticello in 1939, the coin's designed was unchanged until 2003. Schlag's initials were added to the base of Jefferson's bust in 1966.
There have been several mint mark variations on this coin during its run. These include:
1938-1954: Denver, Philadelphia and San Francisco all mint coins.
1938-1964: Mint marks are featured on reverse of coin, between Monticello and right rim.
1954: San Francisco stops minting coins. They resumed for 1968-1970.
1965-1967: No mint marks featured on coin.
1968: Mint mark moved to obverse, just below date.
1980: Philadelphia mint begins using "P" mint mark, it was blank before this time.
There was a special Wartime Nickel version of this coin minted from 1942 to 1945. These nickels are 56% copper, 35% silver and 9% manganese and usually appear a bit darker than other coins in the series. These coins feature the largest mint mark ever on a US coin, located above Monticello's dome on the reverse.
Jefferson nickels are great for beginning collectors because they are a fairly easy set to collect from circulation. Coins from the 1940s can be found in circulation fairly regularly. Jefferson Nickels are usually judged by the number of steps that can be seen on Monticello, with 5-6 steps being premium coins.
Rare coins in this series include the 1950-D Nickel, which has the lowest mint number of all Jefferson nickels. The 1939-D, 1939-S, and 1942-D nickels are also quite rare and command premium prices.
