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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;bhp3rd, post: 481146, member: 16510&quot;]Nickel is murder for dies.&nbsp; We would not even be using it if congressional lobbyists, who had friends and were working for their rich mining operators, had not found a use for it and forced it on the mint - (ironically this is exactly what happened when the silver mining operations struck it rich).&nbsp; They had to force production of silver dollars so the government could subsidize a use, (and value) for the metal.&nbsp; It is not very well know but nobody, I mean nobody in 1880 walked around with silver dollars in their pocket.</p><p>Nickel&#039;s nickname is &quot;the devils metal&quot; and for good reason.&nbsp; That plus during the period from about 1900 to 1950 the nickel was the work horse coin of it&#039;s day same as the quarter or even dollar is today.&nbsp; It would by a ride, a coke, a sandwich and many daily expenses were served by spending a nickel.</p><p>The hardness of the metal, the overuse of dies and increased production numbers caused the nickel to be one of the worst struck U.S. coins ever.&nbsp; Some silver nickels were indeed stuck some better but the war time effort of overproduction affected it also with many poor strikes.&nbsp; If you will notice modern nickel are superbly struck but the intire relief has been lowered.&nbsp; That plus much better die steel has increased the nickels strike but it remains a poor coining material for so many reasons mentioned above.</p><p>Ben Peters[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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