Obverse:
The bust of Abraham Lincoln, designed by Victor D. Brenner, has been on the penny since 1909 which was the
100th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth. The Lincoln cent was the first U.S. circulating coin to
bear a president's image. Why does the portrait of Abraham Lincoln face to the right when all of the other presidents'
portraits face to the left? Lincoln faces right not because of a law, but simply because Lincoln happened to
face right in the image Brenner used to design the coin.
Reverse:
Since 1959, the reverse on the penny has been an image of the Lincoln Memorial designed by Frank Gasparro.
It commemorated the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.
When the United States Mint was created in 1792, one of the first coins it made was the one-cent coin,
and it looked very different from the modern cent. The image on the first cent was of a lady with flowing hair,
who symbolized liberty. The coin was larger and made of pure copper, while today's smaller penny is made of copper and zinc.
In 1857, Congress authorized the Mint to strike the cent with 88 percent copper and 12 per cent nickel.
The “shape and size” would be determined by the Director of the Mint, with the approval of the Treasury Secretary.
The new cents showed a flying eagle on the front and a wreath on the back. The Act of February 21, 1857,
also mandated that people could no longer use coins from other countries, a practice that had been necessary
because of a lack of domestic coinage. However, people could bring their foreign coins to the Mint, where it
could be exchanged for U.S. silver coins and the new cents.
From 1909 to 1958, the Lincoln obverse was paired with a reverse that featured a wheat design in which two
sheaves of wheat flanked the words “One Cent” and United States of America. This coin is commonly known as the “wheat penny.”
Composition:
Copper-Plated Zinc: 2.5% Cu, Balance Zn
Weight:
2.500 g
Diameter:
0.750 in., 19.05 mm
Thickness:
1.55 mm
Edge:
Plain
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