By 1909 we were ready to have a “facelift” for our
cents. It was a new century and a new age and folks felt we needed a
new design of this most basic coin. Victor David Brenner designed
this coin which was issued as part of the commemoration of the 100th
anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The coin has been
popular enough that while we have changed the reverse (to a design by
Frank Gasparro showing the Lincoln Memorial) we have left the face
alone. Metals have changed twice; during World War II (1943) we used
steel as the other metals were needed for the war effort and
beginning in 1982 we went to a copper plated zinc as the metal value
of a cent was approaching its face value as it had in 1857. Long a
starting place in collecting for numismatists, the Lincoln Cent is a
classic American coin.
Good reference works for those more interested in this type of coin
are “The Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins”
by Walter Breen and “The Authoritative Reference on Lincoln
Cents” by John Wexler and Kevin Flynn.
This page and all images linked to it are the property of Cybercoins. All rights reserved; images may not be used without written permission. ©1995-2007 Cybercoins.net, Inc.