New Penny Designer Is Abraham Lincoln Reincarnated

Are you in to coin collecting yet? No? Well, the U.S. Mint is going to try again: In 2009, there will be four new designs on the back of pennies.

As you can see from the two examples in the photo, they’re lavishly detailed; one of them features a 50-foot tall Lincoln that kinda looks like a young Ralph Nader! (I think I’m the only one who thinks it looks like him.) The other has Lincoln as a young railsplitter, reading a book (Infinite Jest, most likely). But, as the Inquirer’s Peter Mucha explains, that particular penny was designed in Philadelphia!

As a teen, Charles Vickers, a sculptor/engraver for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, had to split firewood using a wedge and a wood-headed hammer called a maul.

So, a few years ago, when the mint assigned him to submit one of four new designs for the penny, an image immediately came to the Jenkintown gentleman’s mind: Lincoln’s reading a book while taking a break from splitting logs with a double-banded maul.

I’m pretty sure this guy actually is Abraham Lincoln. I have to imagine there’s a way to get from president to mint engraver in two or three reincarnations. FYI: Pennies now cost more than a penny to mint; our nation’s only hope for fiscal solvency now is the collected wealth of coin collectors buying mint condition pennies at premium prices.

New penny designed partly in Philadelphia [Inquirer]