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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Troodon, post: 223013, member: 4626&quot;]Er, wrong, pick up a buffalo nickel and look again.&nbsp; No &quot;In God We Trust&quot; on them.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s my understanding that the legislation in 1908 at the time exempted coins with a denomination of less than 10 cents.&nbsp; In 1909 Indian head pennies and Liberty nickels did not have the motto (nor did Barber dimes).&nbsp; When the Lincoln cents were introduced in 1909, &quot;In God We Trust&quot; was added anyway, despite not being required, but when Buffalo nickels were introduced in 1913 the motto was not added.&nbsp; I believe the legislation that required them on all coins (no excpetion for under 10 cents) must have been passed later; some time between 1913 and 1938 the legislation was amended to include all denominations.</p><p><br /></p><p>Also, the legislation passed in 1908 did not apply to already-existing designs; you&#039;ll note that dimes of the time (Barber) didn&#039;t have the motto but the motto was added to dimes when the Mercury design was started in 1916.</p><p><br /></p><p>Edit: Researched it <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust" rel="nofollow">here</a>, the act passed in 1908 only required that &quot;In God We Trust&quot; be added to coins upon which it previously appeared (apparently the legislation was interpreted to mean a specific coin design, rather than the denomination, because &quot;In God W Trust&quot; was not added to Liberty nickels, despite the motto having been on shield nickels previously).&nbsp; It was reaction to its removal from the $20 gold piece that prompted its return.&nbsp; Nothing mandated that they be placed on coin designs that they never appeared on (which meant the one cent and five cent were exempted), however the Secretary of the Treasury could add it to new designs if he chose.&nbsp; He did so for the Lincoln Cents and the Mercury dimes when they were introduced, but did not do so for the Buffalo nickel; nickels would not have &quot;In God We Trust&quot; on them again until the Jefferson nickel was introduced in 1938.&nbsp; Since 1938, all US coins have the motto (exempting some presidential dollars that are missing the motto due to an error.)</p><p><br /></p><p>You&#039;ll notice that when the Buffalo nickel design was reproduced for use on the 2001 commemorative and the 2006 gold Buffalo, the motto was added despite it not being on the original design.&nbsp; On the 2001 commemorative, it is added below &quot;E Pluribus Unum,&quot; on the gold buffalo it was added below the buffalo&#039;s head (the same place &quot;E Plurinus Unum&quot; was on the original design; that motto was moved below &quot;United States of America.&quot;)[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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