Owner Comments:
In 1938, U.S. Mint officials decided to retire the Buffalo Nickel design. Although the coin is a huge collector favorite today, the U.S. Mint System had long had issues with striking the design properly. Hence officials decided to retire the Buffalo motif after 25 years. The 25 year mark is the time at which Treasury officials may change a coin design without Congressional approval.
Mint officials issued an open invitation to sculptors to submit proposals for the new nickel design. The parameters were that the design would honor Thomas Jefferson and that his home, Monticello would appear on the reverse. There were over 400 entries. From that group, the work of Felix Schlag was selected. His original work is shown above on the right. The piece displayed is a fantasy coin that was issued by Ron Landis in 2021.
Given the extensive changes that were made to Schlag’s original proposal, his work almost became a suggestion in the end. Although Schlag’s portrait of Jefferson was mostly unchanged, the lettering was altered from Schlag’s modern style to the classical Roman font.
Most obvious was the change in the depiction of Monticello. The finished coin showed Jefferson’s home from a frontal perspective instead a portion of the building on the left side. Some have said the Schlag’s original reverse design would have been difficult to strike well.
The type coin on the left is modern Proof with the ultra Cameo finish. As an older collector, I still marvel at these modern cameo Proof coins. When I started as a collector in 1960, Proof Cameo coins like this were virtually impossible to find. Now they are norm.