Bring back the "Buffalo Nickel"?

a nickel is a nickel no matter what it looks like it still spends the same

 

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I'll gladly give you ten shiny new nickels for your old, worn-out 1885 nickel.

 

Wait! I just spent $80 on two wannabe nickels, are you saying I'm stupid?!?!?! Are you that Nigerian prince with my money?

 

The front of the new nickel should be a Giant Ground Sloth and the reverse should be an Acron.

 

Is that why all our modern coins look so flat?

 

Yes. The old coins were struck at a rate between 60 and 100 coins per minute so the metal had .5 seconds or so for the metal to flow and fill the deeper recesses of the die. Today they are struck at 750 coins per minute which means the metal now only has .04 seconds to fill the die. Now the metal flows just so fast, so in order to fill the die in the time available the relief has to be much lower.

 

they don 't use more pressure?

 

Using more pressure helps to a point, but it also cause dies to wear out faster, and can cause damage tot eh presses. And at some point increasing the pressure has no real effect, the metal just can't move that fast and trying to make it move faster just breaks things.

 

Metal can move as fast as you need it to, but things get complicated. I didn't go into metallurgy, so that's probably about all I should say. (I don't think high-speed striking would get metal velocities approaching the speed of sound in metal, which is where "breaking things" would be hard to avoid...)

 

more pressure might crystalize the metal alloy. I don't know.