How old does Tom have to be?

Aww yeah. I think my nickel was struck within minutes of Paul's.
Notice the die crack near the bottom on the obverse.
edit: I see elijah mentioned that.

 

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While I'm at it, here are a couple of my san fran '40s. Sans the die crack.

 

I keep anything pre 1960. Got a couple of rolls so far and quite a bit of silver. I think it's amazing to find coins this old still in circulation. Don't really get that with the other coins, though I do find wheat cents once in awhile.

 

That's some nice toning on that Jeff. I think it is cool that we all have about the same coin(though mine is in the worst condition).

 

The law dating back into the 19th century states that a coin design must be continuous for 25 years before it could be changed. Given that then 67 years had passed no such congressional action was necessary. The US Mint could have changed the reverse too, but for the fact that the Commonwealth of Virginia protested vigilantly against such. But the 25 year rule is the very reason that the Buffalo nickel was struck for exactly that number of years. The mint did NOT like striking them, they were hard to strike up with full designs, hard on dies etc.

 

I only keep (for the most part) war nickels and key dates.
If I kept every nickel from 20 years before I was born and before, I would be saving nickels from 1979 and before.
If my great-great uncle started roll searching and kept every nickel from 20 or more years before he was born, he'd have a collection of nickels made prior to 1889.

 

Short and sweet answer to the origional question.
2009

 

No because the 25 years required had long since passed 1946 was the change from silver composition back to original so if you consider the war years a change the experation date would have been something like 1971/72 give or take a few years. If you don't consider the composition change then 38 + 25 years so something like 1961 would have been the opportunity to change the design.