The mainstream press picked up and ran with the U.S. Mint’s promotion of Lincoln penny images and the new coins to honor the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent in 2009.
Nearly every major outlet had something to say about the four commemorative coins. And, why not? It’s not every day a circulating U.S. coin gets a 50-year-old makeover.
Before the evening news Monday, several thousand CoinNews visitors had read about the upcoming changes.
While the quantity of visitors to the article was no record-breaker, or "top 20" for that matter, Read the rest of this entry »
(Edina, Minnesota) – The introduction next year of new designs for the common Lincoln cent is being praised by a coin expert, but he doubts the practicality of pennies in pocket change.
"The Mint has been producing cents for circulation for 215 years since 1793 and they’re fun to collect, but the usefulness of one-cent denomination coins is questionable. Pennies may go the way of the two-cent, three-cent and twenty-cent denomination coins that were eliminated in the 1800’s," said Gary Adkins of Edina, Minnesota, President of the Professional Numismatists Guild, a nonprofit organization composed of many of the nation’s top rare coin experts.
"Any new design will be exciting for collectors and should make non-collectors take a closer look at their pocket change. But this may be the beginning of the end for pennies,” said Adkins.
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2009 Lincoln penny design images were revealed by U.S. Mint Director Ed Moy Monday morning during a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial. The four reverse designs celebrate a different aspect of Abraham Lincoln’s life: his birth and childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois and his Presidency in Washington, D.C.
"This is a momentous occasion in the history of our Nation’s coinage because these designs represent the first change in the Lincoln cent in half a century," said Director Moy.
"These coins are a tribute to one of our greatest Presidents whose legacy has had a lasting impact on our country. He believed all men were created equal, and his life was a model for accomplishing the American dream through honesty, integrity, loyalty, and a lifetime of education."
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The United States Mint announced in a media advisory Friday that it will reveal the 2009 Lincoln penny designs during a news conference at the Lincoln Memorial on Monday, September 22.
(Editor’s update on 9/22/08: view penny design images here.)
The news event will be hosted by Mint Director Ed Moy and the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission.
Four pennies with different reverse designs will be released in 2009 to celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln cent.
While the obverse or heads side of the penny will remain unchanged, the 2009 pennies will bear new reverse images for the first time in 50 years. In 1959, the currently used Memorial reverse replaced the well known Wheat Ears design.
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Is the demise of the Lincoln penny approaching? Public sentiments appears slightly shifted toward its continual survival and the penny is guaranteed to be around for the next several years. The newly designed pennies for 2009 celebrating the bicentennial birth of Lincoln will see to that by itself.
But is sentiment for the penny changing and moving toward its elimination?
While the House is debating changes to the composition of coinage in order to make coins like the penny and nickel once again profitable to mint, more focus is placed on whether the penny should be produced at all. Even the latest House hearing had congressman pondering the pennies’ continuation.
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