[h=2]Lincoln and Wheat Back Cents[/h] Thu Apr 5 11:22:33 2012 [HR][/HR] Lincoln Cents are not a main focus of my collection but with more than a trillion examples minted in over a 100 years, it is inevetalbe that ever collect will accumumulate some Lincolns. In my case, my son has been filling out is Lincoln Cent folders and I've aquired a few interesting examples as we filled his books. First of course is a classic 1909 VDB which nearly every collector has at least one superior example of. This is ours: The Lincoln Cent was the first regular business strike that was the result of Teddy Roosevelt's reworking of American Coinage which began with the Double Eagle. The original idea for the cent wasn't Lincoln but the Indian Design that finally ended up on the $10 single gold eagle. But with the advent of the 100th anniversity of the Republican Lincoln's Birthday coming, politics overrules for the current Republican President and for the first time a living person was instituted on a US coin with the Lincoln Cent, a precident I'm not particulary happy with as today we can't get the dead Presidents off our coinage and US coin design is now stifled. In 1958 the reverse was change to the Lincoln Meorial. Since 1982 most of the Copper has been removed from US coinage, and today we essentially have a zinc cent with a copper plate. The Design has also been upgraded and made more crisp. Here is an nice example of a 1995 which I lifted out of circulation: This is a nice bright 1934. You have to wonder how these coins stay copper bright after decades. [h=3]Steel Pennies (cents)[/h] Steel Cents have no specially value, and there are billions of them. But the Zinc and Steel in them was terrible combination and react causing the coins to corrode, and self destruct. So nice examples that haven't been electroplated are nice inexpensive finds
Yes, the design was upgraded in some sort, as in making it cheaper to produce. But that "upgrade" Looks much more of a downgrade in my eyes. The relief was lowered a lot, making circulation wear less visible to the naked eye. I have never liked lower relief coins and am quite disappointed when they lowered it to the point where Lincoln's hair looks like spaghetti running down his face. Don't get me wrong, I love the Lincoln cent! But the design lost the "Pizzaz" It had in the past. Oh, and you're right about the '09 V.D.B.. I have a couple
I agree with that statement 100%. The mid to late 80s coins, even though they were Zincolns, they are great in MS, with at least some relief. 10-15 years later though, I agree, it was terrible with that fake spaghetti hair and beard. It has really gone downhill from then, to what I call the "Diseased Zincolns", the super-low relief and heavily spotted 2010 and 2011 cents which look like someone put a permanent marker to the coin. I cannot imagine cents with worse quality than what is producing, and it really should be improved. Compare my 1985 to the 1995, and then look at a shield cent.....
I cheated on this one, though. It was just copy and pasted from my website. And somehow, I seem to have started a flame war....
You're not the only one. So far I have seen exactly three coins, one birthplace and two formative years.
I've seen shields, but '09 was in the midst of the crest of recession, and I'm not sure that relatively speaking, that many cents were released into circulation. Anyone have the production numbers? It might be a relative rarity for a coin that usually is minted in the 100's of billions. Ruben
I've seen more shields and 2009's then I ever wanted to, but I was about to look up the numbers in the trusty redbook, and gosh darn it, I can't find it. Must not be here!
You meant first real person on a US coin right? And I would assume you meant regular circulation coins, because there were commemorative(s) before that. I think I got that right.
2009 Birth & Early Childhood: 284,400,000 2009D Birth & Early Childhood: 350,400,000 2009 Formative Years: 376,000,000 2009D Formative Years: 363,600,000 2009 Professional Life: 316,000,000 2009D Professional Life: 336,000,000 2009 Presidency: 129,600,000 2009D Presidency: 198,000,000
