New-look nickels got little publicity
Nickels commemorating the Lewis and Clark expedition look a lot like the new state quarters to some people.
By LUCIA ANDERSON
Date published: 10/4/2004
By LUCIA ANDERSON
Some say coins are too similar now to the state quarters in circulation
Twenty-five cents or just 5 cents? Lately some people have been finding it harder to tell the difference.
"You know, I think I might have been one of them," said Jane Morgan, a slow smile beginning to spread across her face. "I put what I thought were three quarters in the vending machine, but it wouldn't give me my water. I bet one of them was one of those nickels."
The nickel that Morgan, a clerk at Frank's in Fredericksburg's Park & Shop Center, was talking about was one of the new Westward Journey nickels, imprinted with designs commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition.
"The first time I saw one, I thought they were counterfeit," said Arleen Grammer, a server at Goolrick's lunch counter downtown.
"People think they're quarters or they're foreign money. They're just not right," said Cathi Allison, owner of Dog Dayz on Caroline Street.
The first in a planned series of four nickels appeared last March. It is a replica of the Peace Medal that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark presented to American Indian chiefs as a token of good will as they made their way from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. It shows two hands clasped, one in an Army uniform and the other in American Indian dress, under a crossed peace pipe and hatchet.
The second in the series, released in August, shows a keelboat like the ones the expedition used as it traveled up the Missouri River.
Two more new nickel designs are planned for 2005--one with an American bison to be released in the spring and another with a view of the Pacific coast in late summer. Both of those nickels will have a new likeness of Thomas Jefferson, the driving force behind the expedition, on their faces.
The new nickels are the result of legislation introduced by Virginia's Rep. Eric Cantor (R-7th District).
"The commemorative series of nickels are a way of celebrating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition," Cantor said in a telephone interview, "and they're also an opportunity to bring out the connection Lewis and Clark had to our commonwealth, to Mr. Jefferson and Monticello. The expedition began in the commonwealth."
Date published: 10/4/2004
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