Return To Monticello For 2006 Nickel

I was hoping they'd just forget about that. "Restored to original clarity"? Whoop-dee-doo! I guess some FS collectors will be excited about that, but other than that...

Rachel [:p]

This is an absolute stab in the back to everyone who ever collected coins. I can assure the fine politicians in Virginia that neither I, nor my family, will ever set foot in their state. This Jefferson/Monticello affair makes me numismatically sick to my stomach. Oh how I wish the voters of this country would clean house, across the board, at every level and replace the filthy rich with good, working men/women who knows what common sense is and how to operate a real budget! That would be the ultimate gift to ourselves in this lifetime!

The problem is that the 2006 Jefferson - Monticello nickel whatever design will be permanent. It was not good enough that we as collectors/dealers suffered 67 years with this lackluster design, now it will be another lifetime.
While I am all for honoring the founding fathers, let us do it in the fashion that is appropriate. We have commemorative coins specifically for this.

There should be NO person on any coin or currency save for Lady Liberty.

Our nickel was kidnapped, hijacked, and confiscated by Virginia. How 1 state can dictate the rest of the 285 million people in America is just plain sad. Don't think for a moment that the quarter won't be next.

So tell your kids and grandkids here it is folks. Sorry, but we stood by and watched our coins get etched into permanent designs.

"The 2006 nickel, “Return to Monticello,” is the last in the United States Mint’s Westward Journey Nickel Series™ and signifies both the return of the Lewis & Clark Expedition from its 8,000 mile journey and the return of the Nation’s nickel to the reverse design of Monticello". (Mint Press release)

This may leave the door open for the mint to offer another series in 2007. With the success of the State Quarter program, stupid they're not. Even a govt. bureaucrat can smell money to be made from collectors like us. I bet they will change the design again to start another series.

What Star Trek episode was it where some computer thingy say: "All is as it was. Many such journeys are possible."
Was that City on the Edge of *FOREVER.*

As anti-federalists go Jefferson was kind of A wuss compared to Robert E. Lee. I think the Republic of Virginia should put Lee of the obverse and Traveler on the reverse. Then nickel carvers can carve Lee into an Indian and Traveler into a buffalo.

What is the significance of "Monticello" that it should be etched forever on American coinage?

My Red Book says "This nickel was designed by Felix Schlag. He won an award of $1,000 in a competition with some 390 artists. His design established the definite public approval of portrait and pictorial themes rather than symbolic devices on our coinage."

It may have been that the "public approval" was for a new design in 1938.
How many people now say they like the design of the Jefferson nickel more that the Indian Head/Bufflo Nickel?
What was the "public approval" like to the new designs on the nickel in the last two years?
People love variety, It's the spice of life.

I assume Monticello is in Virgina. Is Virgina afraid to loose a tourist attraction?

How about "The Staute of Liberty" on one side and "Mount Rushmore" on the other. This would give you four presidents, Liberty and two tourist attrations all on one coin.

I laugh at the terms "forever" and "lifetime" in today's society. An athelete gets a "lifetime ban" that lasts one year.

I used to work in the precious metals business where I collected dental and jewelry scrap (Au, Pt, Pd and Ag). Anyways, in one dental scrap shipment sent in February was a gold necklace inscribed with:

"I love you ____, forever yours, ______" (and the date from Christmas)

In ended up in a precious metal scrap pile less than 60 days after this person received it! We laughed, so "forever" has meanings to what we deem it to be. There is still hope that the 49 other states can tell Virginia where to go.

A side note...I have been to Monticello and for history lovers, it is a very cool place. Also, I never knew that Jefferson held on to his last dying days to make it to the 4th of July. As he was dying, he kept on asking, "Is it the 4th...is it the 4th yet?"

Let me share an interesting thing about Monticello.

Across the highway (I-64) is the official rest stop - museum for Monticello. In the museum they sell many Jefferson circa coins. (All foriegn) However in the actual museum, they have a showcase with all the coins found on the estate. A Half Dime with the story of how Jefferson is rumored to have given his silver for the nations first coins.
As we know, this same story translates to George Washington. Who knows? I did not know either of them.
Anyways, they have several large cents, and a very large copper piece, labled as a Large Cent but much larger, and many coins dated well after the death of Jefferson.

The resident "numismatist" referred to several reasons for the confusion contained in the collection. Mostly that I had "no clue" about early American coinage.

Not that his statements were anything new, I hear that at least once per day from someone But I am pretty sure (almost positive) that most of the coins "found" dated in the 1830's through the 1850's came long after his death of He died on July 4, 1826. Of course math isn't always my strongest suit. But hey, what do I know about early American coinage?