2009 Lincoln pennies
 

As part of the Presidential $1 coin act, the penny will undergo a series of changes. It seems that more and more, the mint is trivializing currency by treating it as a novelty item.

Here are some specifications for upcoming changes to the penny:

• Redesign of the reverse of the Lincoln cent in 2009 to show four different scenes from Abraham Lincoln's life in honor of the bicentennial of his birth. These four scenes include:
  1. his birth and early childhood in Kentucky;
  2. his formative years in Indiana;
  3. his professional life in Illinois; and
  4. his presidency in Washington, D.C.

In 2009, numismatic cents that have the metallic copper content of cents minted in 1909 will be issued for collectors.


After 2009, yet another redesigned reverse for the Lincoln cent is supposed to be minted; this "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country," and so will replace the Lincoln Memorial reverse in use since 1959. However, it could be argued that the Lincoln Memorial itself meets the requirements of the Act through its design elements (mainly the 36 columns representing the states at his death and the names of all 48 states when it was constructed), so it is theoretically possible that the Lincoln Memorial reverse could return.

Re: 2009 Lincoln pennies
 

I personally think they are just "training" us to expect money to change so that when they actually do decide to switch to the Euro money format that none of us will even notice the change.

Re: 2009 Lincoln pennies
 

Gee, should that be a boot stepping on the Constitution? the words Habeas Corpus in a red circle with a red diagonal line through it? or should the emblematic image be a southern mansion on fire, or how about starving and dying Yankee soldiers in Andersonville prison who suffered as a result of contraband confiscations, which included medicine, and who were refused to be exchanged for prisoners in the north because Lincoln and Knox knew that the southerners would rejoin the fight whereas the northern soldiers would simply go home??? What about the Maryland congressman who was imprisoned for speaking out against the war? or how about the newspaper publishers who were imprisoned for opposing Lincoln???? So many choices....:banghead:

Re: 2009 Lincoln pennies
 

Hahahaha! That is pretty much what was going through my head, too.

I'm sorry but I just can't get excited about commemorative coins of any type that are struck on low value metal. The presidential coins are made of the poorest, most worthless alloy ever used in American coinage and the penny is made of zinc. Zinc at least has some inherent value over the face value of 1 cent, but the trick is that zinc pennies do not hold up well at all. Maybe that's good for numismatics? In 100 years there may be only a few zinc pennies left. I don't mind switching up the designs every once in a while, but propaganda pressed into poor quality coin stock doesn't excite me.

The nickel was well done, and I liked the State quarter silver proofs.