I hadn’t heard anything about us getting new nickels, I was dumping my change into the bucket when I found saw a strange coin. Aparently there is a new Lousianna Purchase nickel that has cheesy picture of a handshake. How long have these been out? Are there other? Am I a totally inobservant idiot?
A) This year
B) Yes
C) Yes 
This is the Centinnial of the Lewis & Clark Expidition, so there are two new, temporary reverse designs on the nickel this year. See here for details.
Hey look. The handshake one has golf clubs on it, too. I guess the Louisiana Purchase was the world’s biggest golf course, until it got settled up. Huh. One more thing they never taught me in history classes…
I got one of these in change last week while on a trip. My co-worker was convinced that it was a Mexican or French coin. I laughed, then saw he was serious… :o
I wish they would do more designs and change the money more. I think the State quarters was one of the best ideas in a very long time, and I like this as well.
One of the inspirations for this was the success of the state quarters.
wolfman, that cheesy picture is over two centuries old. The design of the new nickel was based on that of the 1801 Indian Peace Medal, commissioned by the US government as a physical token of friendship, given to the chiefs of the various tribes.
Sattua, that made me laugh out loud! First thing I thought of when seeing the coin was: What are the golf clubs for?
Yeah, one hellova big golf course. Wonder what the green fees are? 
So we give them a peace medal, commit genocide, then put the peace medal’s image on our currency… ouch.
And isn’t there another coin that just came out that praises the Louisiana purchase?
"… already another" (makes a little bit of difference… not much… 
)
I have only one word to add to all this. That word is: “seigniorage.”
You mean like the one dollar coin?
[Conspiracy Theory]
It’s a big suck-up to the French. Since the birth of the republic, the USA has gotten a total of two square deals from France: The Louisiana Purchase and The Statue of Liberty (Which is already gets alot of visability). What other options were left?
[/Conspiracy Theory]
Hmmm…
[ol]
[li]Got Wine?[/li][li]A Salute To Cheese[/li][li]Bonjour, Opal![/li][/ol]
I would like a dollar coin, if they made it more like the old silver dollars in size instead of those quarter looking, Susan B. Anthony things or the “golden” dollars that look like crap once the plating wears off.
Yeesh…I missed it too!
Living in the Cleveland area, I get more than my fare-share of Canadian coins. My first thought when I saw the reverse of the new nickel ('cuz I didn’t really look at it closely) was “Huh… wonder when Canada changed the design of their nickel?”
Then I flipped it over and saw the obverse face. :smack:
Ok, I had no idea about the new nickels at all. Just now I opened my wallet, looked through my change - and lo and behold, I had one.
That’s clearly an ax, but the other one…yes, yes it is a golf club.