The longest running United States coin series is the humble Lincoln Cent. Four generations of Americans have known this coin as a feature of everyday life. As the centennial of this coin type approaches in 2009, plans are already underway to commemorate both the coin and the great man it honors.

   The image of Abraham Lincoln is among the most iconic in American history. The 16th president of the USA was born in 1809, and it was the idea of one of his successors, Theodore Roosevelt, to honor him with a circulating coin upon the centennial of his birth. Russian-American sculptor Victor David Brenner was given the commission to prepare models for both sides of a new one-cent piece to be issued in 1909. For his bust of Lincoln, Brenner used a photo taken in 1864 by Anthony Berger of the Matthew Brady Studio. The reverse features a pair of wheat heads arranged heraldically around the statutory legends.

   The first release of Lincoln Cents in August of that year prompted some controversy when critics decried the placement of Brenner’s initials at the bottom of the cent’s reverse. Though this was not without precedent, the Treasury Department decided that it was simpler to remove the troublesome letters than to defend their inclusion. Brenner’s initials, V.D.B., were removed that same year, only to be reinstated in 1918 in a much less conspicuous place at the truncation of Lincoln’s shoulder.

   Millions of Lincoln Cents were coined annually from 1909 onward. Initially struck at just the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mints, in 1911 Denver began making cents, too. In 1941, production for a single year finally exceeded one billion coins, while 1943 saw a change in composition from the normal bronze alloy of 95% copper and 5% tin/zinc to one consisting of steel coated with zinc. This move was prompted by the wartime need to conserve copper. The zinc-coated steel cents were a miserable failure, being often mistaken for dimes and being rejected by vending machines. The U. S. Mint returned the following year to the pre-war alloy, with only the tin content deleted for the duration of the war.

   On the golden anniversary of the Lincoln Cent in 1959, the U. S. Mint debuted a new reverse by one of its staff engravers, Frank Gasparro. This depicts the Lincoln Memorial, erected in Washington, DC in 1922. The cent thus became one of a very few USA coins to feature images of the same person on both sides.

   Many billions of Lincoln Memorial Cents have been struck since that time. While the San Francisco Mint ceased the production of coins after 1955, it was reactivated ten years later and once again began striking cents for circulation in 1968. After 1974, its ‘S’ mintmark was dropped from the cents it produced, though it continued making circulating cents without mintmarks for another ten years. The West Point Bullion Depository in New York likewise made such anonymous pieces for a number of years to deal with a shortage of cents.

   Since 1968, the San Francisco Mint has been better known to collectors as the facility which produces proof coins for inclusion in the Mint’s annual proof sets. All such coins do bear the ‘S’ mintmark, which is now associated with these low-mintage coins.

   Sharp-eyed collectors are certain to notice that the Lincoln Cent has changed somewhat over the years since 1909. In addition to the new reverse type in 1959, the Lincoln bust has been modified extensively, while retaining the same basic design. The original master hub became quite worn and blurred, as seen on the cents of 1968. A replacement hub was introduced with the cents of 1969, and these coins are much sharper and have more easily read lettering. Since that time, the portrait of Lincoln repeatedly has been lowered in overall relief to improve striking quality and extend the useful life of the dies.

   Inflation has taken its toll on the Lincoln Memorial Cent, and the traditional bronze composition was discontinued midway through 1982. Though the U. S. Mint had experimented with aluminum and bronze-clad steel cents during 1973-75, none of these were issued, and the replacement cents coined since 1982 have been made of zinc with a thin coating of copper. Now, even this composition has become too costly, given the cent’s very low value, and there is no certainty that one-cent coinage will continue beyond the special commemorative series planned for 2009.