Okay, so I went with a "gotcha" marketing approach to the title to lure you in. Sorry to disappoint but this is not going to be a "F"-Bomb laden rant about US Nickels.... Instead, this is a brief nickel history lesson based upon an interesting coincidence I have thought about for some time. I am curious as to whether others have noticed it and although it doesn't have any major significance, I thought it would give me a decent topic to post on. So, let's talk about the nickels of the last 100 years or so. The nickels that came after the Barber engraved Liberty / "V" nickels 1883-1912. If you want an easy way to remember who designed most of the nickels we most commonly see (1913-now), you can make it easy on yourself by remembering the letter "F". 1. James Earl Fraser designed the Indian Head / Buffalo Nickel 1913-1938 (in fact he left just the initial "F" on the obverse below the date for the design). 2. Felix Schlag designed the Jefferson Nickel (obverse 1938-2004 and reverse 1938-2003, 2006-now) and his "FS" doesn't appear on his design until 1966. 3. Joe Fitzgerald designed the obverse of the 2005 nickels and reverse of the 2005 Oceans in View nickel. His initials "JF" appear on the obverse in the bottom left. 4. Jamie Franki designed the the reverse for the 2005 American Bison Nickel and the obverse of our current nickel (2006 - now). By the time Franki got involved he is almost out of initials to use so he included his middle initial "N" to make it "JNF" on both his American Bison reverse and the current nickel obverse design. This was done so as to not be confused with Fraser or his Buffalo (as stated in "A Guide Book of Buffalo and Jefferson Nickels" by Q. David Bowers) but I would assume it was also intended to not confuse him with his contemporary Fitzgerald. Now of course the reverses of the 2004 Nickels were designed by non "F" designers. Peace Medal by Norman E. Nemeth (also sculpted and slightly altered Franki's 2005 American Bison reverse) and the Keelboat by Al Maletsky but to think the letter "F" and even more so, the initials "JF" belong to 3 of the 4 designers. In summary, if your last name starts with a "F" and you are considering names for a child, consider starting their first name with a "J". In 50-60 years you might realize you are the proud parent of the next designer of our nation's beautiful nickel series. Raul
