Can it really be August already?  This year is really racing by!

The first radio commercial was broadcast on August 28, 1922, electric traffic lights were first installed on August 5, 1914, Colorado Admissions Day was August 1, 1876 and the Lincoln Penny was issued on August 2, 1909. 

Deciding on what I was going to write on for this month, some interesting facts turned up on the Lincoln Penny and so I thought I would look further into it and pass some of these onto you. 

*The U.S. Mint produces 1040 pennies per second, which adds up to 30 million per day, each which is expected to be in circulation for about 30 years. 

*It is estimated there may be 150 billion pennies in circulation.   

*In 1974, as a test, there were 1,579,324 pennies made of pure Aluminum struck by the U.S. Mint.  These were never circulated and most were later destroyed.

*The original small copper cent was released in 1864.  It featured an Indian Head on the front and Olive Wreath on the back.

*The Lincoln Penny was the first U.S. Coin to feature a historic figure.  The original Lincoln Head Penny was designed in 1909.  This was the 100^th anniversary of his birth.  The original design had Lincoln on the front and wheat shafts on the back.  In 1959 the penny was redesigned to include the Lincoln Memorial on the back. This was the 150^th year anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday.

*It is the United State’s longest-running coin series. 

*Major design changes to the reverse of the Lincoln Penny will begin in 2009 to commemorate the 200^th anniversary of the birth of the President and the 100^th anniversary of the introduction of the Lincoln Penny.  Four new backside designs will be released. Each design will depict four different scenes from his life. It will include his birth and early childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois and his presidency in Washington, D.C.

*Victor David Brenner was the artist who was commissioned to design the first coin.  His initials, “VDB”, are on the rim of the coin, just under the shoulder of Lincoln.  The initials “FG”, for Frank Gasparro, the engraver who designed the new backside, appear on the right of the design, near the shrubbery.

 
 

*The metals in the Lincoln Penny have changed several times over its lifetime.  Initially it was made of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc.  The 1943 penny was made of steel coated with zinc.  An error at the mint caused a few 1943 pennies to be made of bronze instead of the zinc coated steel intended for that year.  In early 1944, the mint began making Lincoln head pennies from spent shell casings.  In 1946 the coin was returned to its original composition, but over the years, with the price of copper rising, different metal compositions were tested. In 1982, the composition was 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper and is still being used. The new coins in 2009 will be made with the same alloy as was used for cent coins from 1982-2008, except for special Lincoln cent coins that will be in collector’s sets which  will be made of the same metallic copper content as was used in the original 1909 wheatback pennies. After 2009, the Lincoln cent will see change again with a new reverse design: “an image emblematic of President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country”. 

Quite a history!  I hope you find it as interesting as I did.