Penny

Current Designs

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: In 2009, the United States Mint is minting and issuing four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth and the 100th anniversary of the first issuance of the Lincoln cent. The themes for the reverse designs represent the four major aspects of President Lincoln's life:

• birth and early childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816)
• formative years in Indiana (1816-1830)
• professional Life in Illinois (1830-1861)
• presidency in Washington, DC (1861-1865)

Reverse inscriptions will continue to include "United States of America," "E Pluribus Unum" and "One Cent."

At the conclusion of the 2009 Lincoln Bicentennial One-Cent Program, the 2010 (and beyond) one-cent coin will feature a reverse design that will be emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country.

Background

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."

From 1959 to 2008, the reverse featured an image of the Lincoln Memorial designed by Frank Gasparro. It commemorated the 150^th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

Jan 5, 2009
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