Of course, the businessman had just a bit of a vested interest in the issue considering that he held a virtual monopoly on the production of nickel in the United States. Wharton doggedly lobbied his many friends in Congress to begin striking a second five-cent coin made from nickel. As American industrialist Joseph Wharton argued, by using cheaper nickel and copper, the new five-cent coins could be bigger than the half-dismes. Folio measures 10-1/3" W x 13-3/4" H 26.The small silver coins were difficult enough to keep track of in good times, let alone when they began to vanish from circulation.