Note:

The new nickels honor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase on the back.

The new nickels -- which honor the 1803 Louisiana Purchase on the back but retain Thomas Jefferson on the front are already in circulation.

A friend gave me a United States Mint proof set of the new coins one of which is illustrated here. The other nickel has mention of the Lewis and Clark expedition on the back.

The US Mint sets are beautiful coins but these new coins have given the unhappy French government another reason to bitch to the UN about the United States.

Fritz

 

Jan. 2, 2005 (TAP) -- France has lodged a formal complaint at the United Nations over the new U.S. nickel. The reverse of the new nickel commemorates the bicentennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase, when the United States in a clever real estate deal bought 800,000 square miles of French territory for a mere four cents an acre.

"The government of the United States is taunting France," said French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, "They think it is très drôle that they put one over on us. I will remind the American jackals that in 1803, four cents was real money.

One could take a lady to dinner at a fine restaurant, share a bottle of the best champagne and then off to a five star hotel where he could have his way with her all for only four cents."

A spokesman for the U.S. Mint said the coin was not meant to mock France, "although you can't help but think that if it were 1803, and you dropped one of these nickels in a French vending machine, you would get more than a screw-cap bottle of the best French wine equivalent to a bottle of American 'Thunderbird'."

Copiedrite 2005, The Assorted Press and "The little old wine-maker, Fritz" Inc.

(Tip of the hat to Scott Ott.)