Help needed: fun trivia for U.S. Cents?

I'm doing a presentation for elementary school kids (grades 1-5) and a few younger than that.

Here is a list of what I've found so far. If you see any mistakes or contradictions, please let me know.

If you have anything else to add, please do so. The presentation is scheduled for Friday, March 3rd, so you have some time.

Thanks!

(Edit) P.S. The presentation is on *ALL* U.S. Cents... small, large, and even including Fugio cents since I like them so much. So trivia on ANY "U.S. Cent" will gladly be accepted!

 

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• The U.S Mint estimates that the average life expectancy of paper currency lasts for as little as 18 months. The average cent lasts 25 years!
• The Mint produced its first circulating coins (11,178 copper cents) in 1793. Today there is more than $8 billion worth of coins circulating in the US and, in the past 30 years, the US Mint has minted over 300 billion coins, worth in excess of $15 billion.
• On Lincoln cents, President Lincoln faces to the right, while all other portraits on coins face to the left. This was not done on purpose — it was simply the choice of the coin designer.
• Mint marks: P (2017 only), D, S. Under date on obverse. No mint marks used from 1965 to 1967, or in any year except 2017 at the Philadelphia Mint.
• In 2015, the U.S. Mint produced 9,365,300,000 cents
• Composition
• 1909–1942, 1944–1982: 95% copper, remainder tin or zinc
  
• 1943: zinc-plated steel (magnetic!)
  
• 1982–present: copper-plated zinc (97.5% Zn, 2.5% Cu)
• Before the Lincoln cent, no regularly circulating U.S. coin had featured an actual person (as opposed to idealized personifications, as of "liberty")
• While a 1909 penny could send a postcard or buy a few eggs, it can't even buy itself: in 2014, the U.S. Mint spent 1.7 cents on every penny it produced.
• the U.S. Mint took more than two years to produce its first million coins, but today the Philadelphia Mint can make approximately that many in 45 minutes.
• Some people think that, when flipping a Cent and calling “heads” or “tails”, you should always call “tails” because the “heads” side weighs more and will fall down more often. The U.S. Mint disputes this theory.
• The name “penny” actually comes from England
• The first modern English coin was the silver penny of Offa, 8th century king of Mercia
• Originally, the penny was made from silver, but in later times was minted in copper.
• By the 18th century — when the first U.S. coins went into circulation — Brits still used the word penny as the singular for pence, just as they do today.
• The coin's name derives from the Old English pennige, pronounced, roughly, penny-yuh.

• There are more than 130 billion one-cent coins currently in circulation.
• Since its beginning, the U.S. Mint has produced more than 288.7 billion pennies. Lined up edge to edge, these pennies would circle the earth 137 times.
• More than two-thirds of all coins produced by the U.S. Mint are pennies.

 

Reword this, I think you meant that in 1909, a penny could do this...kids are literal

 

How about these points as well:

1. Today's cent that everyone knows is much smaller than what George Washington saw. Today's cents are about the same size as a dime. In George's time, the cent's were the size of a half dollar! This was due to the value of copper in those days.

2. The Indian head cent features a figure wearing an Indian head dress. According to the designer James Longacre, the facial design was based on a statue of Venus that he saw in Philadelphia. It was on loan from the Vatican at the time. Rumors have circulated for years that the facial design was inspired by his daughter, Sarah.

3. The Lincoln design is the longest running design in all US coinage. Starting in 1909, the Lincoln portrait has been on the obverse of the cent for 108 years!

4. Many coins from the 1700 and 1800s are often found by metal detectorists. Often, these coins have a hole drilled in them. Legend has it that people in those times would drill a hole in their coin, then make a necklace out of them. This was to help from losing these coins, where most clothes were hand made and not so sturdy back then.

5. The initials VDB seen on today's Lincoln cents stands for the original designer of the Lincoln Cent (Victor David Brenner). When the coin design was first released, the VDB was seen on the reverse of the coin. There was much uproar about this, where people thought the designers initials didn't look good on the coin, and didn't need to be there. The initials were removed. The initials VDB were brought back to the coin in 1918 on Lincoln's shoulders.

 

Well done @Dougmeister !

Have you given any thought to mentioning the 2009 Commems?

Chris

 

Yes, I have a PowerPoint with pictures of all the major types, from (Fugio) to the Shield Reverse, with special slides showing the four different reverses of the 2009 Commemoratives.

I'd upload it here if CoinTalk allows PPTX as a filetype...?

 

Ben Franklin is credited with designing (or inspiring or influencing the design of) the Fugio cent.

 

You might also include Civil War Tokens in your discussion. They were privately minted (some the same size and composition as large cents) because coinage was so short during the Civil War

 

don't you mean the small cents?

 

honestly, I was talking out of my depth, Frank. I don't know a lot about CWTs and have never owned one. I only know why they were made. I think you're right, tho. I stand corrected

 

1909 was the only year that two different types of U.S. small 1 cent pieces were
minted.

 

That is not necessarily true. In 1857, you have Flying Eagle Cents and Large Cents being made simultaneously, and IIRC, 1794 has 2 or 3 types of Cent. There may be more that don't come to mind right off the bat.

 

Yeah I knew I should have worded that differently. But that is one way to learn something new.

 

There were two different types of Indian cents in 1864; the copper-nickel type (same composition as the Flying Eagle cents) and the more familiar (to us but definitely not elementary school kids!) bronze composition. Also, there were two different types of cents in 1982 when the transition from bronze to copper-plated zinc (clad) occurred. The changing reverse designs are potentially of interest driven by anniversaries of Lincoln's birth.

 

1909 was the only year that two different designs for the U.S. small 1 cent piece was minted. ???

 

Here is what I have so far. CoinTalk doesn't allow PowerPoint, but it does allow Adobe PDF. It is the last attachment at the bottom of this post.



Please provide feedback either in this thread or via PM. I am totally open to all criticism, constructive or otherwise ;-)

(Note: you *should* be able to see my "notes" on some of the pages by mousing over the "word bubble" in the top left...



if you can't see the entire text (and you probably won't), you should be able to right-click the bubble and choose "Open All Pop-Ups".



That should open a re-sizable mini-window in the top-right of your screen.)

 

very nice presentation!

 

In 2009, we got four different design cents though.

 

This is incorrect. There were three types of cent produced in 1793. The first was the Chain cent mintage 36,103. Then the Wreath cent 63,353. And finally the Liberty cap 11,056.

Several of your points seem to relate to the mint and coinage in general and not specifically to the cent. I thought this was cent trivia.

Some more trivia:

The first US coin with a mintage over one million was the 1798 cent 1,841,745.

In 1857, due to the rising cost of copper, the cent was reduced in size and made of 88% copper and 12% nickel. This composition stayed through mid 1864. When new these coins had a silver white color and they were commonly called "Nickels".

The cent has had more than one design in a given year on five occasions. 1793, the Chain, Wreath,, and Liberty cap. 1796 Liberty Cap and Draped Bust. 1839 Coronet and Petite head. 1857 Braid hair large cent and flying eagle cent. 1909 Indian head and Lincoln cent.

When the cent was introduced in 1793 it was roughly the equivalent value as the British Half Penny. So a cent wasn't a "penny", it was a half penny.

During the Civil war coins were widely hoarded including the copper nickel cent (Due to the value of the nickel). Merchants began circulating their own one cent tokens made of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc (French Bronze), Civil War tokens. These tokens, at 2/3 the weight of the regular cent and without the valuable nickel, stayed in circulation becuase the value of the metal was well below one cent.

The government thought this was a great idea, so in 1863 the passed a law banning the private tokens, and in mid 1864 began making cents out of the same lower weight French Bronze alloy.

The only year the mint has not made cents was 1815 due to a shortage of planchets caused by the War of 1812.

From 1796 to 1832 planchets for US cents were provided by the Boulton & Watt Company of Birmingham England.

From late 1793 to Dec 1795 the cents had a lettered edge, since then they have all had a plain edge.

Most of the 1793 cents had a "vine and bars" edge design.

 

Oh well, I tried, I should have not used the word only. Please let Conder101 know it was six occasions not five.