The E-Sylum:  Volume 8, Number 47, November 5, 2005, Article 25

THE COINS FROM LINCOLN'S EYES

Last week, Jeff Starck of Coin World mentioned that
"... pennies (sorry, cents) were placed over the eyelids
of the deceased." and that "a Chicago museum has cents
it claims were placed on President Abraham Lincoln".

Tom DeLorey writes: "They were not cents, they were Seated
Half Dollars.  Joe Scheidler and I examined them here at
the Chicago Historical Society several years ago, and Joe
wrote it up for the Gobrecht Journal. The coins are affixed
to a certificate of authenticity by means of a black silk
ribbon run through two holes drilled in each coin (GACK!
The first slab!) and some sealing wax. One of the coins is
an 1861, and Joe was wondering if it might be an 1861-O.
By very carefully laying coins atop it under the watchful
and apprehensive eye of a curator, I was able to compare
reeding counts and determine that it was a P-mint coin."

[The Chicago Historical Society web site pictures these
coins: "Silver half-dollars were placed over the president's
eyes, and government undertaker Frank Sands arrived to
prepare Lincoln's body for the journey home to the White House."
Full Story

I wonder if the old custom of using pennies (in Britain)
and cents (in the U.S.) changed in the U.S. when the Mint
switched to small size cents after 1857? Are the smaller
cents too small and light to hold the deceased's eyelids
in place?  Could that be why half dollars were used
instead of cents for President Lincoln's body in 1865?
-Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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