DANIEL WEBSTER Will nickel outshine design?

The First Flight Centennial coins look like the highest-flying design of the year. The three coins, in gold, silver and cupro-nickel, have a grandeur in their designs that lifts the set above everything else the U.S. Mint has issued this year.
The $10 gold coin juxtaposes the Wright brothers' boxy plane with an eagle in flight, a balance of symbols that convinces with its solidity.
Which coin is the grandest this year, however, awaits the appearance of the new U.S. nickel. The nickel has been reimagined to show Thomas Jefferson with the Lewis and Clark explorers.
It will be struck for three years before the nickel will be returned to something like its present form. Collectors will value the nickel's three-year transformation, however it looks.
For $15 million, the United States doubled its size in 1803 by buying the French territories in the Louisiana Purchase. It was called the greatest real estate transaction in history, and it helped to clarify the fledgling country's view of itself as a growing and major nation.
The U.S. is marking the event with coins celebrating the Lewis and Clark expedition through much of those lands. France has recognized the 200th anniversary of that sale with gold and silver euro coins.
The French take on the anniversary exemplifies the distance separating the place and the event. The French design carries figures of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon Bonaparte, engineers of the land sale, standing with a map showing the area.
The reverse shows Louis Armstrong playing his trumpet against a background of steamboats and an oak-shaded Louisiana house. The design may imply that Louis Armstrong's music conquered more of the world than Napoleon's armies.
The silver 1.5-euro proof sells for $49. The 20-euro gold proof, in .920 fine gold, costs $495. Both come in presentation boxes with certificates.
Queries go to PandaAmerica, 3460 Torrance Blvd., Suite 100, Torrance, Calif. 90503, or to (800) 472-6327. E-mail queries go to infopandaamerica.com.
Stack's auction
Colonial coppers and Continental dollars will be the core of a three-day auction Oct. 14-16 at Le Parker Meridien Hotel in Manhattan.
Stack's will auction the John J. Ford Jr. collection of early American coins on the first day. The collection includes Vermont and New Jersey coppers, 1787 fugio cents, and dollars in silver, pewter and brass.
The Randolph S. Rothschild collection of pattern coins will be a feature of the second day, and pioneer gold will be sold on the final day.
Viewing is on the net at www.Stacks.com. First gavel is at 6:30 p.m.
XDaniel Webster is a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer.