The Philip Nolan Of Coins (2026-D Nickel)

You may have read the 19th-century short story, "A Man Without a Country" by Edward Everett Hale. In it, Philip Nolan is on trial for treason. During the trial, he becomes disgusted with the United States and says he never wants to hear about the country again. The shocked judge gives him his wish: Nolan is sentenced to life at sea as a prisoner with no news allowed. He has literally become a man without a country.

Well, my 2026-D nickel is literally A Coin Without a Folder. As you can see, I have a Whitman Jefferson nickel folder Number Three, beginning in 1996. It has enough holes to go up to 2026-P. And, as you can see, I have no place to put my newly acquired 2026-D nickel.





(Epilogue: While at sea, Nolan begins to miss his country and constructs a shrine to the United States in his room, complete with a drawing of the land and a bald eagle. He eventually dies and the authorities find this statement Nolan wrote to be his epitaph: "In memory of PHILIP NOLAN, Lieutenant in the Army of the United States. He loved his country as no other man has loved her; but no man deserved less at her hands.")