Poor Richard’s Almanac

A new look for Lincoln. February 13, 2009

It’s me, Richard Saunders of Poor Richard’s Almanac fame, here today to talk about dollars and cents—specifically, Lincoln dollars and cents. As you all know, our 16th president, Abraham Lincoln, was born on February 12th, 1809, so this year marks the 200th anniversary of his birth.

But here’s something you may not know: To mark his hundredth anniversary back in 1909, the U.S. Mint created a commemorative penny, the Lincoln cent. It replaced the Indian-head penny, supposedly just for the anniversary year. But the new design proved so popular that we’ve been saving and spending Lincoln pennies for the past hundred years.

The original Lincoln cent had a pair of idealized Art Nouveau wheat stalks on the back, and is now known as the wheat-ears cent. Then, in 1959, the design was changed to show the Lincoln Memorial on the back. (Numismatists, aka coin collectors, call the back of a coin the reverse and the front the obverse, just so you know. They’d also as soon drop dead as refer to a cent as a penny, for reasons that have never been clear to me.)

To celebrate Lincoln’s Bicentennial, the Mint is planning to issue not one but four new penny—I mean, cent—designs, starting on his birthday, February 12th, and then releasing a new design every three months through the year. Only the back (reverse) design will change, following Lincoln’s career from his birth in a log cabin in Kentucky through his youth, early career, and presidency.

Then, in 2010, there will be a new, permanent  design on the back of the venerable cent. The Lincoln Memorial will go the way of the wheat ears. I have to say, I’ll miss it. But I’m looking forward to seeing the new design, which will celebrate Lincoln’s keeping the States of America united. Wonder what it will be?

New pennies aren’t the only thing the Mint has up its sleeve. Also on February 12th, it released a commemorative Lincoln silver dollar, featuring a striking image of Honest Abe on the front and the end of the Gettysburg Address on the back. (Pardon the pun—coins are referred to as being struck rather than stamped with their images.) Can’t quite remember the end of the Gettysburg Address? ”…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Today’s pennies have just a thin veneer of copper over a zinc base, but when the Lincoln cent debuted in 1909, its composition was 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc. The U.S. Mint is releasing special sets of the Bicentennial pennies in the original composition, if you’d like to purchase a piece of history.

Two other things you should know about Lincoln pennies: First, the original design created a scandal when it appeared in 1909. The designer’s initials, VDB (for Victor David Brenner), appeared between the wheat ears at the bottom of the back of the penny. Apparently, people were outraged, believing that the intitials stood for some occult or Masonic credo. A great outcry arose, and the designer’s initials were hastily pulled from subsequent strikings. In 1918, they were finally restored—discreetly this time—on the back of the coin. Today, of course, the comparatively rare 1909 “VDB” cent commands premium prices among collectors, and the even rarer 1909-S (San Francisco Mint) “VDB” cent can sell for thousands of dollars.

The second thing you should know is that during World War II, Lincoln cents turned “silver.” These “silver pennies” weren’t really silver at all, but they looked like silver. That’s because our government needed every bit of available copper to make shells for the war effort. In 1943, Lincoln cents were made of zinc-coated steel. (They were hastily discontinued once it became obvious that they rusted.) I think everyone should have several of these in their collection for the historical value alone, but don’t be fooled by folks who are hyping them as great rarities: You can buy a circulated “silver penny” for 12 to 15 cents, and even uncirculated examples sell for about 50 cents.

There’s one final thing you should know about the Lincoln cent: Its appearance marked the first time a real person had been used on a U.S. coin intended for circulation. Previously, various artistic interpretations of “Lady Liberty” were typically featured, along with more prosaic numerical designs and the occasional eagle or idealized Native American. The Lincoln cent ushered in the era of representational coinage that produced the Franklin and Kennedy half-dollars, Washington quarters, Roosevelt dimes, Jefferson nickels, and Eisenhower and Susan B. Anthony dollars that most of us grew up with.