For as long as I can remember, there’s been talk about removing the penny from the current coinage produced by the United States Mint. How many readers out there consider the penny to be nothing more than a nuisance? Well, before you write off the penny, let’s talk about its long and illustrious career.
The history of the U.S. penny dates back to 1793 when President George Washington asked Ben Franklin to create a design for various pieces of coinage. The original creation was large in comparison to the modern-day Lincoln penny. It also had several variations in production until 1858 when the Indian Head penny was designed and adopted for use. It was in 1864 when the weight was reduced from 72 grains to 48 grains and the alloy was changed to bronze (95% copper and 5% tin and zinc). The Indian head design was created by James Barton Longacre, an engraver at the Philadelphia mint. Nearly all the 1.8+ billion one cent pieces used from 1858 to 1909 were produced at the Philadelphia mint with only some several hundred thousand being made at the San Francisco mint from 1908 – 1909.
The Lincoln penny was first produced in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of President Abraham Lincoln. Putting the face of a historical figure on a coin was unheard of prior to 1909, but the prevailing sentiment the American public felt for this beloved former president was enough to break with tradition and create a design featuring a profile of Lincoln on the coin. The original obverse contained two wheat stalks thus giving rise to the name “wheat penny”. In 1958 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Lincoln’s birthday, the reverse was changed to a design featuring the Lincoln Memorial and this form continued unabated until 2009. Today the current Lincoln penny obverse design has a Union shield with the words “E Pluribus Unum” meaning ‘one out of many’ written across the top.
The composition of the Lincoln penny has varied over the years since 1909 due to such factors as cost, availability, reliability and war times. A brief synopsis of penny composition is as follows:
- 1909 – 1942 : Bronze alloy consisting of 95% copper and 5% tin and zinc
- 1943 : Zinc coated steel
- 1944 – 1946 : Brass alloy consisting of 95% copper and 5% zinc
- 1947 – 1962 : Bronze alloy
- 1963 – 1982 : Brass alloy
- 1983 – Present : 97.5% zinc core with 2.5% copper plating
The penny is by far the most widely used coin in the United States and has the highest mint amount with several billion being created. in 1943, all pennies were cast out of steel instead of copper because copper had more applications for WWII. The amount of copper not being used could meet the combined needs of two cruisers, two destroyers, 1,243 B-17 planes, 120 field guns and 102 howitzers, or enough for 1.25 million big field guns. Few knew that bullets needed to be cast with a copper casing, rather than a steel one because the tract of the bullet was more accurate. That year, 12 pennies were accidentally cast out of copper, making them the most valuable of all Lincoln pennies.
I will always regard the ‘wheat penny’ as being the most beautiful and used as it reminds me of my youth when I would search through countless jars of Lincoln pennies looking for the wheat stalks on the back. You can tell that the current rendition of the penny was created purely to save money. The relief on Lincoln’s face is less artistic and more simplistic for there is no etching to create the hairs on his beard and the upper body is barely detailed. In fact, it costs the US Mint 1.7 cents to mint a penny, making the battle to keep the penny around a losing one.
The list of reasons why the penny should be disbanded in quite large in size. So what happens if and when the penny disappears? Well, the Jefferson nickel will take it’s place and because a nickel costs the US Mint less than 1 cent to mint, you probably will see all products rounded up to the nearest five cents. All of the cliche’s you’ve come to know and love may have to be adjusted to reflect the current US Mint production. Can you have a nickel for your thoughts? We’ll know soon enough.
Published or updated August 18, 2011.
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I really don’t even save pennies no more because I think that they just take to long to add up and take up way too much space
Pennies can be annoying, especially if you have gotten used to not using to pay for anything. On the other hand, having a few pennies in your wallet allows you to make exact change. If everything were rounded up to the nearest five cents, it wouldn’t be it’s true value. That is why we need the penny to stick around.