Owner Comments:
The Soviet Nuclear reactor at Chernobyl exploded on April 26th, 1986, and changed forever the future and perceptions of Nuclear power. Arguably, for the United States especially, the Three Mile Island event of 1979 had already done a lot of damage to the perception of and support for nuclear power, but the Chernobyl disaster was a completely different level of disaster with far greater long-term consequences.
And so, this became another major disaster / loss event from my birth year that would come up many times over the course of my life and later studies, particularly after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, which happened in 2011, while I was in grad school, studying, of all things, process safety, risk analysis, and loss prevention.
75% Copper, 25% Nickel (Cupronickel)
Mintage: 361,819,140
5.0 grams
21.2 mm diameter
Designer: Felix Schlag
Monticello Reverse (1938-2003)
This coin was purchased with the other MS66 5FS nickel currently residing in the set in November 2018. Making these the first new coins purchased for the set in several years (since at least Feb 2011) and the first upgrades made to this set after I met my wife.
My stepfather and I - somewhat randomly - took a look back at these sets with an eye to try to fill in some of the remaining holes - particularly in the 1983 set.
After a conversation and a few emails with my stepfather, I found myself at work on a slow day with an internet connection and I decided to start looking around on eBay. I found a lot of coins that could have filled in holes in the 1982, 1983, and 1958 sets, but I also went looking for coins that could have been used to upgrade and improve the 1986 set. The 1986 set is for my birth year and, as such, it's always been a pet project of mine. I found these two nickels, both of which the seller had put on sale for 10% of, perhaps as part of some holiday sales that always seem to go on throughout the month of November these days. I also found an MS67 1986-D quarter, which would have been a major addition to this set, but that coin was significantly more expensive than both of these nickels put together and it was just more than we were looking to spend on upgrading this set at the time. My stepfather decided to pull the trigger and get these nickels, bumping out two more of the original coins in the set that we submitted ourselves about 11 years prior.