2006-P Return to Monticello

The 2006-P "Return to Monticello" Jefferson nickel marks the end of the Westward Journey program and the introduction of the current Jefferson nickel design still in use today. The Monticello reverse returned after its two-year absence (2004-2005), and the obverse received a new forward-facing portrait of Jefferson designed by Jamie Franki and sculpted by Donna Weaver. Franki's portrait is based on an 1800 painting of Jefferson, when Jefferson was 57 years old and at the threshold of his presidency. The composition shows Jefferson's face and bust on the left side of the coin, in a facing view offset to the left, departing from the strict profile that had defined the design from 1938 through 2004.

The 2006 obverse is distinctly different from both the original Schlag left-facing profile portrait (used 1938-2003) and the Joe Fitzgerald right-facing portrait used during the 2005 Westward Journey program. The Mint described the new portrait as showing Jefferson as "a forward-looking visionary," emphasizing his role as a statesman and departing from the more formal classical bust that the Schlag profile had presented for two-thirds of a century. The reverse continues the standard Monticello rendering used since 1938 (the same building view that Schlag had been forced to revise from his original three-quarters perspective). The combined 2006 design has remained the standard Jefferson nickel through the current year.

Philadelphia struck 693,120,000 coins with the new design in 2006. The coin is abundant in all grades and readily available in Mint State. The auction record is $450 for an MS67 sold in September 2021. Collectors building complete Jefferson nickel sets acquire the 2006-P as the first year of the current design, a significant transition marker in the series and the closing of the multi-year Westward Journey commemorative program.

The return to Monticello restored continuity with the pre-2004 Jefferson nickel tradition while introducing the new Franki obverse that reframed Jefferson's representation for the twenty-first century. The Westward Journey Series had documented the Louisiana Purchase and Lewis & Clark expedition through four reverse designs (Peace Medal, Keelboat, Bison, Western Waters), and the 2006 Return to Monticello brought the series back to its longstanding architectural reverse with an updated obverse portrait. For collectors, the 2006-P represents the beginning of the modern Franki-Weaver-Schlag composite era that continues today.