5 Cents "Shield Nickel With Rays" · “Shield Nickel With Rays”

The Shield Nickel With Rays: a coin too stubborn to strike

In 1866 the United States struck a five-cent piece out of a brand-new alloy nobody had coined before — and it fought back. The metal was so hard, and the design so busy, that the dies cracked, the details blurred, and within months the Mint quietly erased part of the artwork. The version with the original rays survives as one of the shortest-lived designs in American coinage.