The US Mint has ended nearly a century of tradition with the creation of a new nickel (5 cent piece) depicting Thomas Jefferson in a face-on portrait.
The launch of the new US nickel ends the mint’s custom of showing presidents in profile, which it has followed since Abraham Lincoln became the first president to feature on a coin, in 1909.
The mint has now begun shipping 80 million of the coins across America — the first of an estimated billion new nickels going into circulation this year.
The Jefferson image on the new coin is taken from an 1800 portrait by Rembrandt Peale of America’s third president. The reverse of the coin features Monticello, Jefferson’s home in Virginia.
Until 2004, Jefferson and Monticello had featured on nickels for 66 years. However, for the past two years, the mint replaced Monticello with images commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase — the acquisition of nearly 530 million acres of land by the US from France for $15 million — and its subsequent exploration by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
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David Lebryk, the US Mint’s acting director, said the Jefferson image was the perfect way to complete the series. “The nickel features a forward-looking President Jefferson who recognised that the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition would expand horizons in numerous ways,” he said.