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Peace Medal Nickel resurrects good intentionsThe Peace Medal Nickel remembers a medal that commemorates an expedition whose goal it was to gather information about the newly acquired – and utterly huge – Louisiana Territory. And in the process, make contact with Native American nations, and absolutely, positively, establish harmonious relations therewith.Along with all other necessary stores, Captain Meriwether Lewis and William Clark carried medals of “Peace and Friendship”, so inscribed. These they distributed to those they perceived to be influential in the Native American tribes they met on the trail. The Peace Medal coin is the first nickel of the US Mint’s Westward Journey Series. Designed by Norman E. Nemeth and first released on March 1, 2004, the coin commemorates the Bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition, also known as the “Corps of Discovery.” Lewis and Clark would probably not have reached the Pacific Ocean were it not for the mostly good relations they enjoyed with the Indian nations they encountered on the way. Accordingly, this nickel repeats the original Peace Medal devices of clasped hands, hatchet, and pipe. As well it reminds us, with its obverse bust of Jefferson (Felix Schlag’s 1938 design), that the Corps of Discovery was commissioned by President Thomas Jefferson in 1803. That the good intentions expressed on the Peace Medal would all too soon be dashed – as the westward journey gave way to Westward Expansion – was not lost on Gerard Baker, a Native American who is also the National Parks Service Superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. When the Peace Medal Nickel design was unveiled at the US Mint Headquarters in November of 2003 he referred to the Peace Medal as a memorial – not only of peace – but of “friendship among nations. It represented a time for change for the positive, and we see that again.”
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