Got a nickel?
On the front you will see the familiar profile of Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, a founding father of the United States, and our third President.
On the back is a representation of his home, Monticello. Jefferson spent the last seventeen years of his life there, trying out new discoveries and inventions, collecting his many books, and writing copious letters and essays detailing his thoughts on this infant nation that he helped create. He died on July 4 1826, fifty years to the day after the 2nd Continental Congress, meeting in Philadelphia, adopted the document that he authored and which contained these words:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness…”
(When studying early American history in grade school, we were endlessly amused by the fact that the handwritten “S”, 200 years ago, resembles our contemporary “F”. To this day, I cannot hear the preamble without wanting to interject “We hold thefe truths to be felf-evident … Life, Liberty, and the purfuit of Happineff“. But I digreff….)