I was looking at images of the lincoln cent in there early years of circulation online, with the quality of ms60 or better. I took out some change the other day and noticed something pretty interesting(at least to me).I noticed that the lincoln pennies minted these days have considerably more detail, especially the beard of lincoln.It looks like they took the original cast of the image and scratched in hair lines.I may be wrong or this is most likely old news. But if anything really has changed then would anyone know of the date that this happened.Im guessing retouching has been done throughout the years.It would be nice if they restored it to original condition. 1951 cent http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/smellyunderwear/gr80114s.jpg 2006 cent http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v179/smellyunderwear/usa0406l.jpg
you may also notice that lincoln doesnt "stand out" nearly so much, he feels more flat. i have a really nice looking 61 and the details compared to a 2006 SUCK. but he stands out well from the cent compared to the 2006. its a trade off. personally i'd to see a comeback of the wheat and dropping of the presidents and going back to the older designs like the liberty designs.
There's a bill working its way through Congress (it may be through and signed already) mandating a return in 2009 not only the return to the original Brenner design, but also a return to the 1909 copper composition.
Your right---they did re-work the dies--in fact more than once... BTW---the only stupid question is the one NOT asked... I think the years that they re-worked the dies were: 1969 1973 1972 1982 Some of those years they might have just re-done the REV dies....but I'm pretty sure that at least some of them were for the front. Speedy
They make a lot of changes now days. Indeed, almost every year there will be at least small changes and some years will be huge changes. At least in the quarters you can find some mismatches between the obverse and reverse dies. You can find a 1974 quarter with a 1973 reverse for example. I believe these occur at the beginning of the year when the new dies are being installed. They change out the obverse die and then forget to change the reverse die. The 1969 version of the Lincoln is my favorite. It has nice high relief with decent detail and the portrait is a little smaller. A nice well struck example of this is great.
I agree. Real people, living or dead, don't belong on the money of the nation. They belong on commemoratives. It's a little too much like a monarchy or dictatorship to honor individuals in that manner, and I doubt that George Washington would be happy about his portrait on coin and currency.
after i did a little reading about the older coins...i tend to think that lady liberty should be on the coins and for good reason. i do kinda view the presidents on them as idoltry of sorts but i think like you do they belong more on commemoratives. lets honor liberty, i say. that and i think the mercury dimes are out of sight! my favorite coin by far! second being the walking liberty half.
teasing me is not nice. and WHY would they go back to the 09 copper comp??? its only much more expensive and making zinc pennies (cents for you purists out there! ) is expensive enough as it is. or have they found a way to make copper cheaper than slightly less than 3.45 a pound? or rather how thin will they be? regular copper cents are worth over 2.2 cents PER cent. zincs are almsot at 1 cent per cent in metal value. even zinc is going up.
The pure copper cent coins are going to be struck for collectors. The business strikes will surely remain as zinc coated with copper.
so the regular cents are just gonna be what we have now??? i hate my government and i hate the mint. heavan forbid they come up with or go back to a design that actually looks nice. i always thought the wheat looked better than the memorial. or jsut go back to the indian head but we KNOW that wont happen, some indian might claim he's offended by it and several lawsuits are filed in the process.
If there is it doesn't have a chance because they already passed a bill mandating the changes in the design of the 2009 cent last December as part of the Presidential dollar bill. The obverse is supposed to be the Brenner design (which mill mean that they won't change it.) and there are to be four different reverse designs. One for his childhood in Ky, one for his formative years in Indiana, one for his adult years in Illinois, and one for his presidency in Washington DC. The circulation coins (if any, due to metal cost we may be at mint and proof set only by then) will be the regular alloy, but the law allows the coins for the numismatic sets be made in the origianl alloy used in 1909. Hopefully at that point they will discontinue the cent completely. If they don't then for 2010 and beyound it mandates a new reverse that symbolizes how he held the union together during and after the Civil war. This means there could possibly be as many as 16 cents in the 2009 mint set four from each mint in both compositions and possibly 8 different in the proof sets. And since the finish on the mint set coins is different than on the business strikes a complete set of 2009 cents could run as high as 32 coins. (And I could easily see the mint offering to sell full sets in a nice holder for $24.95
That's the bill I was referring to. I didn't know it was part of the Presidential dollar bill and was already law.
The change that you are noticing is what is referrred to as the new "spaghetti hair" designs. In 1991 all US coin designs were reworked to accentuate the hair detail (including Lincoln's beard).
