The Lincoln Cent is by far the most popular and number one U.S. coin series to collect. It's also the most discarded and tossed aside coin. Taking all of this into consideration, what is the reason behind this timeless fascination with old Abe? So I'm posing the question. If you collect them, why? Thanks in advance for the comments.
It is for many of us the first set as a collector and has so much to offer as a series. I have completed various sets but like the toners and woody's.One could spend a lifetime researching the series and finding new varieties be they RPM DD etc even on coins a century old. The series offers a lot to a new or older collector. One aspect is you can have an outstanding set on a budget. Year set 1909-1933 none of the Philadelphia coins are above 40 dollars in MS63-4 most are less. One can collect the whole set in Gem Red from 33 onward for less then 40 bucks a coin in MS65. Lot of coin for the dollars. The cent itself is an obsolete denomination we don't need them in commerce sadly but they have a place at some point in almost every collectors past or present collection. .
The series offers a lot of variety, even within the same year. It is also a series that high grade coins can be cherry picked without having to buy them slabbed. It's also a series that most dealers aren't going to waste their time with unless the coin is a key date. It leaves a bunch of variety's are out there for the taking if you know what you are looking for.
I was raised in Gettysburg, PA and have been fascinated by the American civil war and Lincoln. That started my interest in Lincoln cents, which then just expanded to all small cents. And, of course, some encouragement from my big-time coin collecting Bro!!
My dad and I collected cents because they were always a part of the change we got back when we bought something. And I still carry at least four cents because some times you need it. If it was an "obsolete" coin, why do shops keep a small dish of them so customers can use them when they don't have any to make their purchases?
Well... I've taken to calling anything before 1974 a "one cent coin" and everything after a "penny". There was no longer any value to pennies after 1974. This was when they were going to start making them out of aluminum because copper was too expensive. I guess the 1974 lg dt was the last circulating one cent piece and the sm dt was the first penny. I suppose this doesn't cause me to hate the pennies themselves but rather the thinking and waste they represent. And, of course, deficit spending has erased the value of all one cent coins that have no numismatic premium. Even a nice Gem 1962 penny has no value because it is too common. You have to get to choice Gem before it has a premium. So this means better than 95% of all "pennies" in existence are just worthless slugs and 95% of the remainder have value only because a lot of people hoard "wheaties". Very few "pennies" have actual value and I love all of these from a well worn '09-S vdb to a Gem 1984 with nice surfaces and no spots.
Cents are readily available. They're easy to get in change. They're cheap. It's easy to build a set. There are a number of varieties. Abe was the first president to be assassinated. He lived in a terrible time in our history. He was a great outspoken person. Time has made him famous. Why not collect Cents?
It was the first series I collected as a kid. As an advanced collector of early copper, I decided to put together an UNC set of Lincolns as a side collection. It's a pretty set.
The thrill of the hunt. I only search for date and mint mark. Keep only the teens, 20's and 30's. I have searched several hundred thousand.
Indeed it is a long story. Very, very long with just as many reasons. While many books exist on the Lincoln cent as a coin, I don't believe any touch on the subject at hand. The meaning behind why so many collect this series. Thus far, like myself, most relate them to their early childhood and a method associated with collecting them. Others the shear numbers available in pleasing grades at reasonable prices. Many of us, on both sides of the topic, toss them in containers to be forgotten. Of the literal millions of reasons I would think a safe assumption that this fascination be a hidden factor for it being the longest continuously struck coin in U.S. history. I truly believe this popularity and passion for a coin costing near double face value to strike gives pause to mint officials contemplating it's cancellation. Imagine the backlash. The most recent, although minor in comparison, being the West Point release which was free with a set purchase. Apologies for getting winded. Thanks so much for all the comments, pro and con, on my little research subject.
Written about this before, but the U.S. Mint would be crazy to stop making Lincoln cents completely. Canada blew it, could have made some easy money. If the U.S. Mint would stop minting circulating Lincoln cents, they would be crazy not to make them as collector items and sell them for a small premium. Both biz strike and proofs. And all four mint locations (San Francisco would mint both biz strike and proofs with mintmark, and add mintmark for Philadelphia mint).
The one cent piece offers the most complete date set in the entire U.S. coin series. From 1793 to date, you can get at least one coin for every year except 1815. The War of 1812 prevented the mint from importing planchets from England, and the facility had run out of them by that time. A fire also limited the mint’s production during that period. As for the Lincoln Cent, a dealer, when I was a kid, told me that it was “a Mickey Mouse collection” when I considered completing it after I finished my Indian Cent set. I finished the 1909 to 1940 album as an adult in 1983 with a 1909-S-VDB. It came with ANACS VF-20 papers. Today it’s in an NGC EF-40 holder. NGC got the grade right.
