The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 29, July 20, 2003, Article 18

LINCOLN CENT TO BE STRUCK THROUGH 2009

  Dick Johnson writes: "A bill extending the life of the Abraham
  Lincoln Bicentennial Commission was signed by President
  Bush Monday, July 14th, which virtually guarantees the
  Lincoln cent will be struck through the Lincoln Bicentennial
  year, 2009. This is also the centennial year for sculptor Victor
  D. Brenner's Lincoln Cent design.

  As a coin denomination the Lincoln cent is under considerable
  economic pressure to be discontinued.  It circulates, from
  banks to retail outlets to customers, who in turn add them to
  a home accumulation and, more often than not, do not return
  the coins to circulation.  It is considered by some that a great
  economic benefit would accrue to discontinue the cent
  denomination and round up -- or down -- prices to the nearest
  five or ten cent price.  But more than two-thirds of all
  Americans want the cent to stay alive (according to a December
  2002 General Accounting Office report).

  The Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission is planning a
  national celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday on February
  12, 2009 and supports the issuance of the Lincoln Cent through
  that time. The commission was due to expire next year without
  Bush's signature on new legislation.

  Undoubtedly the 2009 celebration will be an occasion, like
  the birth centennial in 1909, for an outpouring of Lincoln
  numismatic and medallic items. The largest collection of 1909
  items was assembled by Robert Hewitt Jr, a New York City
  real estate operator and Lincolnophile, who donated his
  collection to the Smithsonian in 1918. Numismatist Robert P.
  King cataloged all Lincoln items and published his work in
  The Numismatist beginning in 1924.  It was later reprinted by
  the Token and Medal Society in 1966.

  Continued issuing of the Lincoln cent is supported by the active
  organization, Americans for Common Cents. Its director, Mark
  W. Weller, stated 'It's not just that the front of the penny [read:
  obverse of the cent] has had Lincoln?s image since 1909, it's
  what Lincoln did for our nation.'

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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