Why Aren't Shield Nickels More Popular?

I agree the Shield nickel is a handsome coin.

A visually related coin is the US Two Cent Piece. Minted from 1864 to 1873, they circulated together with the Shield nickel (1866-1883).



Both coins are generally less popular with modern collectors, and handsome circulated examples can be purchased at reasonable prices.

Perhaps you should consider adding a two-cent piece to your collection as a visual 'cousin' to your Shield nickel.

Shield nickels are really cool! It's an interesting design, especially with rays. I think that many people are not attracted to them because they're not particularly inexpensive in nice condition and they went downhill really quickly when circulated.


The 1867 with rays had a much lower mintage than 1866, otherwise I wouldn't have one. It's a beater but it was cheap.
US 5 Cents 1866

I like them enough to like the two I have in my 7070. Maybe one day I will tackle a set. Or a subset minus the keys. An even dozen.

Something to ponder.

Cost is certainly a factor. I think the 2 and 3 cent coins have more draw as unusual denominations.

I personally prefer coins with a bust over heraldry.

I love Shield nickels for the plethora of varieties it holds. From RPD, DDO, DDR to missing leaf, they hold many surprises!

Although die cracks are the norm in this series, finding an example with strong clashing is a challenge!

A factor to consider in terms of "popularity" is collector sentiment. Buffalo nickels and even Liberty nickels are "popular" because lots of old-timer collectors alive today remember getting them in change as young'uns, an obsolete coin which may even have sparked their collecting desire. The Shield nickels, not so much as they were pretty much already gone from circulation by the 1960s (especially if they tended not to work in vending machines due to their different specifications). Thus, the two more-modern-yet-still-obsolete designs have a broader base of collectors interested in them.

This. I very well remember getting them in change, and that's exactly what started my collections.

Many people collect Shield nickels as type coins, but for all the reasons already noted don't tackle the complete sets.

When the silver Three Cent and Half Dime were replaced with the cupro-nickel coinage, the Philadelphia mint had a huge learning curve. The metal is hard, the coining presses were old, and the required striking pressure destroyed dies. For the Shield nickel, another issue was the cluttered design. The result was a lot of cracked dies, poorly struck coins, and frustration. For Philadelphia, however, it was a learning experience. The Liberty nickel was a much lower relief design, easier to strike, and wore much more evenly in circulation. Philadelphia also made all of the dies, and could replace dies easily. Philadelphia also had the lion's share of funding as the main mint, and upgraded its equipment.

Fast forward to 1912. Denver and San Francisco were tasked for the first time with striking cupro-nickel coinage with the Liberty nickel. The relative ease of striking that design was deceptive. The following year, the change to the much higher relief and much more cluttered and poorly-wearing Buffalo nickel overwhelmed the branch mints. They hated the design and experienced all the problems Philadelphia had worked through almost a half century earlier with the Shield nickel, but without the benefit of enough working dies, good striking presses, or adequate funding for upgrades. That's a key reason why the Philadelphia Buffalo nickels are much better struck than the Denver and San Francisco Buffalos. That, in turn, led to the less cluttered and slightly lower relief and much better-wearing Jefferson nickel designs.

So treat the Shield nickel as Philadelphia's high school metal shop learning curve project that paved the way for the designs that followed.