By William T. Gibbs
COIN WORLD Staff

If one word sums up the Jefferson 5-cent coin, it would be "change" because throughout its storied history it has endured many changes.

• The Mint mark has been placed in three different locations, and disappeared completely for a time.

• The designer's initials were added, but not until 1966, nearly two decades after the coin was introduced. (Coin World helped lead the successful public campaign to get Felix Schlag's initials on the coin.)

• The composition was changed, with the nickel component dropped for nearly four years – mid-1942 through 1945 – from the coin most Americans call a "nickel."

• It has been issued with multiple surface finishes: standard business strike, Brilliant Proof, Frosted Proof and a non-Proof Matte Finish.

• The Jefferson 5-cent coin was selected for new designs as a way of commemorating Jefferson's role and the bicentennials of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Three different portraits of Jefferson have been used, one produced for one year only.

Felix Schlag, a German-born designer, won a national design competition to replace the Indian Head 5-cent coin in 1938. Mint officials then still followed the 25-year rule (legally, still in effect today) that they interpreted as requiring design changes every 25 years. Although Schlag won, officials rejected his winning reverse design of Monticello as viewed from an oblique angle, and replaced it with the more static head-on view still used today.

World War II brought the most significant alloy change for the Jefferson 5-cent coin. The composition was significantly altered and the Mint mark relocated to note the alloy change. The short Wartime Alloy set is an inexpensive, popular one with collectors, totaling 12 coins.

The series is a fantastic one for die variety collectors: It has numerous repunched Mint marks, over Mint marks and doubled dies, including the 1943/2-P overdate variety. Many can be found unattributed in dealers' inventories at a fraction of their real values, if one knows what to look for.

Not counting the die varieties and some of the early Proofs, there is only one non-Proof Jefferson 5-cent coin that could be considered slightly scarce, and it is dated 1994! A special 1994-P Jefferson 5-cent coin was struck with a non-Proof Matte Finish. It was issued as part of the Jefferson Coin and Currency set (it comprises the Jefferson commemorative silver dollar, a Series 1976 $2 Federal Reserve note depicting Jefferson, and the special 5-cent coin). Final mintage of the special 5-cent coin was 167,703 pieces.

New Jefferson 5-cent designs were created under the banner of the "Westward Journey Nickel Program." In 2004 Jefferson's portrait was retained on the obverse and two new reverses were produced. One reverse design honors the Louisiana Purchase and features the design of the Jefferson Indian peace medal Lewis and Clark distributed to native leaders. The second depicts the larger boat the expedition used along the Missouri River for a portion of the journey. A new, right-facing Jefferson portrait was selected for the 2005 obverse (and used only in that year) and it was paired with two new commemorative reverses: one showing a plains bison, one of the many animal species Lewis and Clark Expeditions members saw during their journeys; and a design showing a scene of the Pacific Ocean coastline representing the end of the westward journey of Lewis and Clark.

A new full-facing portrait of Jefferson was added to the obverse in 2006 and Monticello was restored to the reverse.