Harris Starting 2014 Lincoln Cent Folder # 4002

The Lincoln cent was introduced in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. It was the first circulating US coin to portray an actual person rather than a symbolic representation of Liberty, and the first cent to bear the motto "In God We Trust."

Sculptor and medalist Victor David Brenner designed the new coin. It was popular with American coin collectors and the general public alike. In 1959, to mark the 150 anniversary of Lincoln's birth, Brenner's original Wheat Ears reverse was replaced with a design by U.S. Mint assistant engraver Frank Gasparro. The new reverse featured a view of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

The original alloy of the Lincoln cent was 95 percent copper and 5 percent tin and zinc. In 1962 the tin was removed, and in 1982 the composition was changed to a think layer of pure copper coating a core of 99.2 percent zinc and 0.8 percent copper. The new copper-plated coins weigh about 20 percent less than those of the earlier alloys.

In 2009, commemorating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the U.S. Mint produced cents with the familiar portrait obverse and four different reverse designs, reflecting distinct stages of Lincoln's life. The scenes represent Lincoln's birth and early childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana,, his professional life in Illinois, and his presidency in Washington.

In 2010 a new reverse was unveiled: a Union shield, "emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country." It was designed by artist Lyndall Bass and engraved by Joseph Menna. This design has been used ever since.

Lincoln cents minted in San Francisco have an S mintmark and those made in Denver have a D mintmark. Nearly all the cents minted in Philadelphia have no mintmark; the only exceptions are those of 2017, which were give a P mintmark to celebrate the Philadelphia Mint's 225th anniversary of coinage.

The number of coins minted each year, if official data are available, is printed below each opening in this folder.

ISBN-13:978-0794840020
ISBN-10:0794840027
Whitman Publishing, LLC