2004 USA Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Collection $2 Note & 5-Coin Novelty Set

2004 USA Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Collection $2 Note & 5-Coin Novelty Set

This handsome currency set commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Lewis & Clark expedition, which sought to explore the new western territory that the USA had acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. The set includes five gold-plated coins that relate to the expedition and its historical context:

• 2004 Louisiana Purchase Nickel, commemorating the 1803 deal with France that added over 2.1 million square kilometres of land to the USA.
• 2004 Keelboat Nickel. The Lewis & Clark expedition travelled through the Louisiana Territory by keelboat, with their primary goal being the discovery of a water route to the Pacific Ocean.
• 2005 America Bison Nickel. Bison were encountered by the expedition, who named them "American buffalo" -- a misnomer that persists to this day.
• 2005 Ocean in View Nickel. William Clark's November 7, 1805, diary entry reads, "Ocean in view! Oh joy!" They were actually looking at the estuary of the Columbia River, but they had more or less made it to the Pacific.
• Sacagawea Dollar. Sacagawea was a young indigenous woman, probably of the Lemhi Shoshone, who guided the expedition from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean.

Also included is a $2 banknote. The $2 note features Thomas Jefferson, who was president at the time.