The Shield Nickel was minted from 1866 to 1883. The shield nickel was the first five cent coin minted in the United States. It was also the first coin to feature nickel metal in its composition. The shield nickel was designed by James B. Longacre. The coin was only minted in Philadelphia, so none of the coins features a mint mark.
The obverse of the coin features an ornamental shield topped by a cross. "IN GOD WE TRUST" is centered across the top of the coin and the date is centered across the bottom. The reverse design originally features a number 5 surrounded by 13 stars with rays passing between the stars towards the numeral. This design was only minted in 1866 and early 1867 and is quite rare. This design did not take into account the difficulty of minting such a hard metal which resulting in the rays causing a great lack of detail on the coin. The rays were removed from the coin in early 1867 and the coin continued with this design until the end of its minting run.
