16 May is the day of the nickel, introduced in the United States 148 years ago.
The word actually originates from the Swedish. This is due to Axel Constedt, the Swedish chemist, who named two elements tungsten and nickel around about 1750. As a mining expert, Constedt worked with Swedish miners who thought they had found copper. When they discovered it was not so, they gave the ore the German name Kupfernickel – copper and mining ghost. Yes ghost! A ghost who played games by putting a spell on copper ores to ensure that there was no copper.
Now nickel is a key element in its own right. It is used in stainless steel, batteries, tinting glass and superalloys.
With more and more applications, extraction has increased steadily from virtually zero in 1900 to over 2 million tonnes most recently. The five biggest producing nations are the Philippines, Indonesia, Russia, Australia and Canada.
But back to 16 May 1866 when the US Congress introduced the 5 cent coin, the nickel. Ironically enough it represented the dream of the Swedish miners – made of 25% nickel and 75% copper. It became a success and the nickel is still in circulation today. However, due to the increase in the price of both nickel and copper, the price of producing the coin is more or less the same as its value. The US Mint is currently examining ways to reduce the production costs.
But nothing will beat the price of a nickel produced in 1913, the so-called Liberty Head Nickel, is one of the most valuable coins ever sold. Only 5 specimens are known, and the last one sold at auction went for USD 3.7 million.
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