Jefferson's getting a facelift. Just in time for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, the U.S. Mint has released four new five cent pieces:

The Westward Journey Nickel Series recognizes the American Indians and wildlife encountered by the Lewis and Clark expedition and the progress and culmination of the journey. The obverse design for the 2005 nickels will bear, for the first time in 67 years, a new likeness of America’s third president, Thomas Jefferson. [The original 1938 design] with Schlag’s classic portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the obverse and the vision of Monticello that graced the nickel’s reverse from 1938 to 2003 remained essentially unchanged since its debut.

Prior to 1938, the famous 'indian head' or 'buffalo' 5-cent coin was in circulation for twenty years. One of the four new nickels revives this American bison design, playing off a popular commerorative coin introduction in 2001. The new Jefferson likeness is the work of Joe Fitzgerald of the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and Don Everhart, staff sculptor for the Mint.

In three years, our attentions will briefly turn to Jamestown, celebrating the 400 years since the colonization of America. On the Pacific coast, the question of origins are more sketchy. Theories hold that Native Americans are from Asia via the Bering Land Bridge, but a new report from Reuters, we need an open mind.

A new site is in the works for The Haven, a NYC-based ministry for creative professionals, and the communications director is now yours truly. Wish me luck...

The strikingly effective message of Project Billboard has arrived in Times Square.