Introduced following the end of the Civil War, the eponymously named Shield "nickel" was the nation's first five cent piece with nickel metal content. The coin was proposed at least partly in response to the public's (and Mint Director James Pollock's) growing dislike of fractional currency. Even though there were already more than a half-dozen small denomination coins in circulation, most were actually not circulating due to coin hoarding that continued to occur after war's end.

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