2009 marks the centennial of the first issue of the Lincoln cent, or penny as it is known in the U.S., first issued in the United States of America in 1909, that year being the centennial of Lincoln's birth. You could say it's the centennial of the centennial cent. The Lincoln cent was the first circulating U.S. coin to feature the effigy of a real person rather than an allegorical representation of a female figure of "Liberty". When it was first released there were queues at banks, people were so eager to get their hands on a specimen. At the time it was thought that it might be a one year only commemorative with a limited mintage. The coin is still being issued today, albeit with a redesigned reverse, the wheat ears being replaced with an image of the Lincoln memorial in 1959. There are also special commemorative designs with a Lincoln theme being issued this year. It would in my opinion have been fitting to revive the original 1909 "wheat" reverse in commemoration, but mints the world over are staffed with designers using digital design software to come up with all sorts of non-circulating "comemmoratives", which aren't really coins at all (just money making ventures which clog our catalogues), and they are just itching to leave their mark on the circulating coinage of the day. The issuance of the cent has become the subject of some controversy in the U.S., with the cost of production exceeding the face value of the coin. Many people would like to see it withdrawn from circulation, but such action must be approved by the U.S. House and Senate, and there are powerful interests who wish it to remain in circulation. The main arguments against it's withdrawal appear to be 1. sentimentality, 2. the fear of inflation, and 3. lobbying from the zinc industry (while the cent appears to be a copper coin, it is in fact since 1982 been struck in copper plated zinc). Meanwhile, each year hundreds of millions, sometimes billions, are minted and circulated, filling jars and drawers, because individually or even by the handfull, they are all but useless.
