Lincoln is the only President who is on both sides of a coin. He can use his head to tell you that your tire tread is getting low. The reason he is so well known and remembered is because he is on the penny. Every living person in this country has handled a penny, from childhood on up, and they know him.....until lately.
Happy National Penny Day! I love coins. I can't believe there are people who actually want to do away with them. I like PayPal and other methods of payment quite a bit, but I still prefer to have a little cash on me, and there's nothing like a little jingle in my pocket to make me smile.
The Composition of the Cent Following is a brief chronology of the metal composition of the cent coin (penny): The composition was pure copper from 1793 to 1837. From 1837 to 1857, the cent was made of bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc). From 1857, the cent was 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel, giving the coin a whitish appearance. The cent was again bronze (95 percent copper, and five percent tin and zinc) from 1864 to 1962. (Note: In 1943, the coin's composition was changed to zinc-coated steel. This change was only for the year 1943 and was due to the critical use of copper for the war effort. However, a limited number of copper pennies were minted that year. You can read more about the rare, collectible 1943 copper penny in "What's So Special about the 1943 Copper Penny.") In 1962, the cent's tin content, which was quite small, was removed. That made the metal composition of the cent 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc. The alloy remained 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc until 1982, when the composition was changed to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper (copper-plated zinc). Cents of both compositions appeared in that year.
This puts me in mind of an experience I had long ago. I was allowed a few days off from school to go visit my brother, his wife, and their newborn child in North Carolina. While talking with a couple of kids who were a little younger than myself, I noticed what day it was and asked "Oh, don't you get Lincoln's birthday off from school?" The girl looked surprised, and asked "Who??"