1961

Philadelphia struck 73,640,100 Jefferson nickels in 1961, a substantial early-1960s production. The coin is common in all grades and readily available in Mint State. Strike characteristics are generally strong, and Full Steps examples exist in adequate numbers for specialist demand at modest premiums.

Collectors building complete Jefferson nickel sets acquire the 1961 without difficulty. 1961 was the year John Kennedy was inaugurated, the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in Cuba, and Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Alan Shepard followed as the first American astronaut just weeks later, and Kennedy committed the country to landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade.

The Jefferson nickels struck in 1961 circulated through the first year of the Kennedy administration, a period of increased Cold War tension, accelerated civil rights activism, and the birth of the American space program that would dominate the rest of the decade. The Berlin Wall went up in August, physically dividing the divided city.