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If you walk accross a street and you see a quarter on the ground would you pick it up ? I bet you would. Now, what if the coin you saw lying there was a penny, would you still pick it up ? Some folks would say, if it was lying face up I might, otherwise picking up a coin that is lying face-down may bring bad luck. How come folks don't say this saying if it was a quarter or a dollar bill lying on the ground, face-down. It all comes down to the value of the money, whether it gets picked up or not. I think most children would pick up a penny, to them a couple pennies can still buy a piece of candy, and to a collector of lincon cents, a penny face down or face up may be a rare find just waiting for an owner.

It's strange how the poor little penny gets such a bad rap from folks, when your in line at a store folks get mad if your counting through a bunch of them, and they seem to be in everyones vehicle ash tray, or glove compartment like there a piece of trash. But to me it's always been the same as having a nickel, dime or anything else. I mean come on folks, you wouldn't throw a nickel away, so why a penny. It's getting so bad that now days many stores keep some on the counter in a container and folks can have a couple for free if they need them for change, I hope they get to the point where they do that for dollars someday. I remember a time when my wife and I was happy to have a jar of pennies, so we could roll them and take them to the local bank for some badly needed money, now I am happy to say those desperate days seem to be gone for me, but I bet there are still a lot of folks that save, and roll their pennies for cash when hard times come along

The Lincoln Cent has been around since 1909, it is the oldest minted design of any U.S. coin. The Lincoln Cent was the first regular minted U.S. coin that used a portrait on it. A sculptor named ' Victor David Brenner ', was selected because of his talents, by president Theodore Roosevelt to design the Lincoln Cent portrait. In fact President Roosevelt saw a plaque that Brenner had made several years earlier that had the image of President Lincoln on it.

Indian Head Cents, Flying Eagle Cents, and Large Cents, did not have the motto ' In God We Trust ', on them, in fact The Lincoln Cent was the first U.S. penny or cent that had the motto ' In God We Trust ', placed on it. In 1909, the first year of the Lincoln Cents release the pennies had the designer's initials on it ' VDB ', but after the coin was released a lot of folks complained that the designers initial's detracted value from the coin, so the large letters ' VDB ', were removed, later in 1918 they were placed back on the penny, but in very tiny print and hidden under the shoulder of Lincoln. From the cents release in 1909 until 1958 the reverse side of the Lincoln Cent showed two wheat stalks, one along each side of the coin. In 1959 a new design was released for the reverse side of the Lincon Cent, this design was the ' Lincoln Memorial ', which is still on the coins today. In 1943 copper became scarce and was needed for the military, so the mint produced Lincoln Cents from zinc-coated steel, these coins are gray or chalky colored.

With almost one hundred years of circulation, the Lincoln Cent has many key-dates and error varieties that make some of them prized finds for coin collectors. Some of the sought after lincoln cents wanted by collectors are: ' 1909-S V.D.B. ',' 1914 - D ',' 1922 Plain ',' 1944 D over S ',' 1955 Double Die ', other Lincolns that have double die errors are on the obverse of some cents dated 1936, 1972, 1984 and 1995 and on the reverse of some cents dated 1983.

There is computer software that is made for collecting Lincoln Cent Pennies. ' Lincoln Cent Collector Software ', lets you record detailed information about each of your Lincoln Cents, such as: Source Aquired from, including name, address, telephone info, email, date, coin condition, cost, value, mint mark, errors or other info, notes, and much more.This is the most easiest to use software of it's kind, and it is made 100% for collecting Lincoln Cents. The software is described in detail and you can download a free demo version of it at this website address:

http://www.rb59.com/lcc

By Robert W. Benjamin

Copyright © 2006

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