THE CLASSIC LINCOLN CENT

 
Lot 250, 1909-S VDB

E-Auction 48 closes next week on Wednesday, December 6th! Lots begin closing at 10 a.m. U.S. Central Time. A carefully curated 333 lots, do take a look! And read on as Allan discusses a classic starting point for countless collectors – the Lincoln cent.

In many respects, it is a humble coin, the smallest bit of change still in circulation. Though its production is seen by many as no longer necessary, the US Mint continues to provide pennies. In the first half of this year, the Philadelphia and Denver mints produced nearly a half billion of the pieces. (Canada stopped minting pennies in 2012.)

It may be humble but it is still in demand. The pieces offered in this catalog—attractive and minty high grade pieces including a couple of the major rarities, as well as a Whitman album (Lot 323) with all but two of the slots filled, are from a collection formed by a collector with a particular appreciation for 20th century American coins. Cataloging and offering these pieces took me back many years to my own early collecting. Fascinated as I was with pennies when I was young, I saw hardly any early coins of this caliber and I never handled a 1955/55 double-die penny until this one.

 
Lot 275, 1955/55 Doubled Die

Teddy Roosevelt, president at the inception of the Lincoln penny, took an active interest in its design in 1909, a hundred years after the birth of Lincoln in an era where many Lincoln-related medals and memorials were issued. A portrait on a plaque by Victor Renner that Roosevelt saw and liked became the portrait for the coin, and a pair of wheat sheaves on the reverse symbolized American agriculture with wheat as a classical representation of life and order.

The Lincoln cent will be 125 years old in 2024—225 years after the birth of Abraham Lincoln. For many of us whose coin collecting enthusiasm go back to childhood, this was a coin that helped start us out. It was an inexpensive way to fill a folder with slots for each date and mint and a source of excitement when an empty slot could be filled by a coin out of a roll of pennies from the bank or the pocket-change of a parent or relative.

Until World War II pennies were struck in bronze (95% copper) but the demand for copper for the war effort led to zinc-covered steel for the 1943 issues. Gun cartridge cases were melted down for pennies from 1944 to 1946. Since then, different copper alloys were used until copper-plated zinc became standard in 1982.

Some references comment that Lincoln pennies remain the most actively collected series of coins in all of numismatics. Perhaps so—there is something about this humble, long-lived coin that speaks to youthful enthusiasm but also to the long and rich history of a coin that has seen immense historic change.

 

Lot 323, 101 different cents dated from 1909 VDB to 1945-S in a Whitman Classic coin album

For more information, or to bid, see:
https://davcoin.com/sale/E-Auction%2048

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