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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;wheatydigger, post: 1347706, member: 35607&quot;]ok, here we go again :/</p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; out of all the possible coins, ranging from the $20 gold double eagle to the mere Roosevelt dime, I would have to pick something that can easily be found in your change. That&#039;s right, the Lincoln cent. old or new, I love them all. The production of the Lincoln cent began in august 1909, and they were designed by Victor David Brenner, whose initials can be viewed on a Lincoln cent even today. One of my favorite things about them is how easily obtainable they are. you can find the older wheat cents in change or buy a roll on the internet for a few dollars. If you are unbelievably lucky, you can find a key date wheat cent, like the 1909 s vdb or the 1914d. The 1909 s vdb cent is sought after by many people in the numismatic world. It is one of the most counterfeited coins because it price can go up to the thousands. Other popular wheat cents are the 1955 double die obverse, an error coin that is very expensive and very popular.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now for a history lesson. I am taking you back in time (which is something I don&#039;t recommend that you do because you can create paradoxes and destroy the world) to the year 1905. You are Augustus Saint-Gaudens, a designer of statues. Theodore Roosevelt wants to hire you to design 5 coins, 4 gold coins and one cent. You managed to design the $20 gold coin (currently the st. Gaudens double eagle) and the other gold coins, but you already proposed 2 designs for the cent, but they have been denied. It is 1907 you are an old man, currently at the age of 59. You take your final breathe in august, but your popularity still lives on to this day.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Now fast forward to late 1908. You are Victor David Brenner, a popular medalist. Theodore Roosevelt was wanting a person to redesign the cent, so he (with the help of some cabinet members) chooses you. You were told that the president liked your work of a plaque of Abraham Lincoln, so you decide to make that your design. It gets approved! The one cent coin that you created included a bust of Abraham Lincoln on the obverse and two wheat ears, &quot;one cent&quot;, and your initials on the reverse. The Lincoln cent was released on August, 1909.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The cent is a huge hit. Thousands of people line up at the mints the day the Lincoln cent was released, and the lucky people who managed to get their hands on a bag of 100 cents are able to sell them for a profit to the Lincoln cent-hungry crowds. Unfortunately, the government wants your initials off the cent because they were seen as advertisement. You are forced to take your initials off the coin, which causes a 3-day delay in the production. Other than this one problem, your coin has become a huge success, and it will stay that way for over 100 years.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I hope you enjoyed your trip to the past, but now I have to go to the facts. The vdb that was taken off the cent in 1909 was added back on in 1918. You can find the vdb today along the bottom of Lincoln&#039;s shoulder on the obverse of a cent. The Lincoln cent, sometimes called the wheat cent, had no design changes other than this until 1959. One thing that did change for only one year was the material. During world war 2, there was a shortage of vital copper and tin that were needed to make weapons. To solve this problem, the government salvaged all of the copper cents and replaced them with a magnetic zinc-steel alloy. The public didn&#039;t like this because the coins corroded easily and got confused with dimes. People proposed that it wouldn&#039;t get mixed up with dimes as much if there was a hole in the coin, but that never happened. somehow, approximately 40 known bronze cents escaped being melted, but they are currently in museums or private collectors. after 1943, the mint said that they would resume copper cents by melting down ammunition shells. The year 1944 and beyond all saw copper alloy cents, but many people don&#039;t think that ammunition shells were melted down to make the coins.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; In 1959, the design of the wheat ears around a &quot;one cent&quot; was discontinued and replaced by the image of the Lincoln memorial in Washington, D.C. It was designed by the 10Th u.s mint engraver, Frank Gasparro. In 1973, copper prices began to rise and people started hoarding Lincoln cents. The government tried to solve this by replacing the metal with aluminum. People were afraid that the new coins would jam in their machines, and the government destroyed it&#039;s aluminum cents, but 14 remained missing. One aluminum cent is currently held at the Smithsonian institution.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; Hoarding coins was a real problem in the late 1900s. Silver prices started to soar, so people hoarded silver. This problem was solved by making clad coins. in 1982, when copper prices started to rise, the government decided to change the 95% copper alloy cent to a cheaper and lighter 97% zinc alloy coin, which is the same alloy used today. the Lincoln cent with the memorial reverse ceased production in 2008, which makes it the longest running design on a coin (the Lincoln bust on the obverse) and that concludes my write-up.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>unfortunately, I have a horrible computer and I am unable to upload any pictures. I hope that will not take points of my write-up. Here is a fact that you probably didn&#039;t know instead:</p><p>-The Lincoln cent was the first coin to have the face of an actual person on it.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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