I have always called it a V nickel as well. I agree, it is simplistic, but much better than modern design. We are long overdue for new coin designs for sure. One of the first coins I traded for in my 8th grade coin club was a V nickel. I might even still have it in my collection but couldn;t tell you which it is.
Wow, that's cool! When I was in 8th grade, I'm not sure I even knew the V nickel existed.
That is when I started learning about coins and collecting. We had a coin club at school. I joined because it seemed interesting with the historical stuff on the flyer. Collected a little on and off ever since. Now that I’m retired I collect a lot :-)