Posts Tagged ‘Lincoln’

Part 2 Of The Lincoln Cent Controversy

On August 2nd, 1909 the new cent was released to the public.
This was the first ever U.S. coin that would be released that would contain a real person on the picture.  As such, there was much controversy as some people felt that putting a real person on a coin was too similar to the European monarchies.  Others felt that a man of Lincoln's importance belonged on a hire denomination coin than a penny.  Mint employees were upset that a coin was designed by a mint outsider.

With all the controversy, the demand for the new penny only grew.  On official release day, people stood in lines to get their first new penny and in many places the coins had to be rationed.  The entire supply of cents was gone in 7 days.  This initial release contained 27,996,194 1909 VDB and the now scare and key date Lincoln, the 1909 S VDB, that had a mintage of only 404,000.  The supply ran dry because only after two days after the official release, on August 4, 1909, production was stopped by order of the Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeigh.

Although MacVeigh had earlier approved the design, he told reporters that he did not know that Brenner's initials were to appear on the coin and that he was only reacting to widespread public criticism. Many people objected to the size of the letters that Brenner had placed just above the rim on the reverse of the coin.  Brenner was angry and threatened to sue as the initials and even full names of other designers had appeared on many previous coins, but there is no indication that he ever followed through on this threat. A suggestion was made to put just the initial "B" on the coin but this was met with fierce resistance by Charles Barber who did not want Brenner's work confused with his own. MacVeigh also claimed that it was cheaper and faster to remove the initials from the hub and leave the die alone. Thus, Brenner's initials were taken off the coin.  They did not reappear on the penny until 1918 after the death of Charles Barber. However, the initials were put on Lincoln's shoulder in letters so small that it can barely be seen without magnification. Although there is no hard proof, many believe that anti-Semitism played a large role in the outcry over Brenner's initials on the Lincoln cent.
The coming years saw many more changes and Part III will cover those changes

More Fun Penny Facts
The U.S. one-cent coin is 19 millimeters in diameter and weighs 2.5 grams.
The composition of the penny is 97.5% zinc and 2.5 % copper.
There have been 11 different designs featured on the penny.
The U.S. Mint produced over 6.8 billion pennies in 2004.
The most pennies produced annually was in 1982 when over 16 billion pennies were produced
Since its beginning, the U.S. Mint has produced over 400 billion pennies.
The average penny lasts 25 years.
The Lincoln penny was the first U.S. coin to feature a historic figure. President Abraham Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909, the 100th anniversary of his birth.
The Lincoln penny was the first cent on which appeared the words "In God We Trust."
Over two-thirds of all coins produced by the U.S. Mint are pennies.
Currently, the penny is the only coin where the portrait of the person on the coin is looking to the right.  The nickel, dime quarter and half dollar, the individuals are looking left.  (This changed with the 2005 nickel and now the nickel as the first ever forward facing design)

Lincoln Cent Pennies - Collectors love them while most folks hate them

If you walk accross a street and you see a quarter on the ground would you pick it up ? I bet you would. Now, what if the coin you saw lying there was a penny, would you still pick it up ? Some folks would say, if it was lying face up I might, otherwise picking up a coin that is lying face-down may bring bad luck. How come folks don't say this saying if it was a quarter or a dollar bill lying on the ground, face-down. It all comes down to the value of the money, whether it gets picked up or not. I think most children would pick up a penny, to them a couple pennies can still buy a piece of candy, and to a collector of lincon cents, a penny face down or face up may be a rare find just waiting for an owner.

It's strange how the poor little penny gets such a bad rap from folks, when your in line at a store folks get mad if your counting through a bunch of them, and they seem to be in everyones vehicle ash tray, or glove compartment like there a piece of trash. But to me it's always been the same as having a nickel, dime or anything else. I mean come on folks, you wouldn't throw a nickel away, so why a penny. It's getting so bad that now days many stores keep some on the counter in a container and folks can have a couple for free if they need them for change, I hope they get to the point where they do that for dollars someday. I remember a time when my wife and I was happy to have a jar of pennies, so we could roll them and take them to the local bank for some badly needed money, now I am happy to say those desperate days seem to be gone for me, but I bet there are still a lot of folks that save, and roll their pennies for cash when hard times come along

The Lincoln Cent has been around since 1909, it is the oldest minted design of any U.S. coin. The Lincoln Cent was the first regular minted U.S. coin that used a portrait on it. A sculptor named ' Victor David Brenner ', was selected because of his talents, by president Theodore Roosevelt to design the Lincoln Cent portrait. In fact President Roosevelt saw a plaque that Brenner had made several years earlier that had the image of President Lincoln on it.

Indian Head Cents, Flying Eagle Cents, and Large Cents, did not have the motto ' In God We Trust ', on them, in fact The Lincoln Cent was the first U.S. penny or cent that had the motto ' In God We Trust ', placed on it. In 1909, the first year of the Lincoln Cents release the pennies had the designer's initials on it ' VDB ', but after the coin was released a lot of folks complained that the designers initial's detracted value from the coin, so the large letters ' VDB ', were removed, later in 1918 they were placed back on the penny, but in very tiny print and hidden under the shoulder of Lincoln. From the cents release in 1909 until 1958 the reverse side of the Lincoln Cent showed two wheat stalks, one along each side of the coin. In 1959 a new design was released for the reverse side of the Lincon Cent, this design was the ' Lincoln Memorial ', which is still on the coins today. In 1943 copper became scarce and was needed for the military, so the mint produced Lincoln Cents from zinc-coated steel, these coins are gray or chalky colored.

With almost one hundred years of circulation, the Lincoln Cent has many key-dates and error varieties that make some of them prized finds for coin collectors. Some of the sought after lincoln cents wanted by collectors are: ' 1909-S V.D.B. ',' 1914 - D ',' 1922 Plain ',' 1944 D over S ',' 1955 Double Die ', other Lincolns that have double die errors are on the obverse of some cents dated 1936, 1972, 1984 and 1995 and on the reverse of some cents dated 1983.

There is computer software that is made for collecting Lincoln Cent Pennies. ' Lincoln Cent Collector Software ', lets you record detailed information about each of your Lincoln Cents, such as: Source Aquired from, including name, address, telephone info, email, date, coin condition, cost, value, mint mark, errors or other info, notes, and much more.This is the most easiest to use software of it's kind, and it is made 100% for collecting Lincoln Cents. The software is described in detail and you can download a free demo version of it at this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/lcc

By Robert W. BenjaminCopyright © 2006

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jeremy said:

certification number is 2431.64/3654961