Nickel’s etymology comes from Kupfernickel, which derives from the German kupfer (copper) and nickel (demon). Miners wanted nickel ore to yield copper and grew frustrated when it did not.

Pure nickel is a silvery-white metal with a faint golden tint.

Nickel is one of the ferromagnetic metals that remain magnetic at room temperature. Iron and cobalt are the others.

Thanks to meteorites, humans used nickel long before they even truly recognized it as an element.

Nickel is used as a catalyst to convert unsaturated oils into saturated fats.

Like many metals, nickel can be recycled indefinitely without any notable loss of quality.

An American nickel coin contains only 25% nickel, with the remainder being copper, and at times the metal content is worth more than the coin’s face value, though it is illegal to melt them.

The first U.S. coin to include nickel (12%) was the Flying Eagle cent, minted from 1857 to 1858.

Coca-Cola sodas were priced at a nickel for many years because that was the only coin the vending machines were designed to accept.

Canada possesses a significant reserve of nickel, and some of it is actually connected from a fallen meteorite.

The back of an American nickel depicts Thomas Jefferson’s estate, Monticello, though from 2004 to 2005 it was temporarily replaced to honor the explorations and contributions of Lewis and Clark.