by Allan M. Heller

Created on: December 07, 2011   Last Updated: December 12, 2011

For the under-rated and under-appreciated penny, the height of popularity came in 1909, when eager throngs descended on mints and treasury buildings across the country, eager to acquire the newly-issued cent (U.S. Coins Values Advisor). For the first time in the penny's 116-year history, the coin depicted the likeness of a real person: that of 16th president Abraham Lincoln. Previously only animals and allegorical figures graced U.S. coins. Lincoln's distinctive profile was based on a bronze plaque modeled two years earlier by Victor David Brenner. The new penny commemorated the centennial of Lincoln's birth. The reverse featured E Pluribus Unum ("Out of many, one") curved around the top, followed by ONE CENT and underneath UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Flanking the English words on either side was a wheat sheaf, prompting the popular nickname "wheaties."

But Brenner's penny was not without controversy, due not only to the break with long-standing numismatic tradition but also with the conspicuous display of the engraver's initials "V.D.B." at the bottom of the reverse. This some saw as blatant egotism, prompting the removal of the letters until 1918.

In 1959, the sesquicentennial of Lincoln's birth, Frank Gasparro's image of the Lincoln Memorial replaced the pair of wheat sheaves on the penny's reverse. (A tiny image of the statue of Lincoln can be glimpsed from between the sixth and seventh columns of the memorial). This iconic representation held sway for  half a century until four distinct pennies, each with a differing reverse design, were minted to commemorate the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. Each design represented a different time period in the life of Lincoln: birth and early childhood in Kentucky (1809-1816), formative years in Indiana (1816-1830), professional life in Illinois (1830-1861) and presidency in Washington, D.C. (1861-1865) (U.S. Mint). The following year, the Lincoln Memorial returned to the flip side.

The first U.S. pennies were minted in Philadelphia. These coins were significantly bigger than today's pennies, and rather ponderous. The first obverse image was of a young woman with wild, flowing hair. On the reverse was a circular chain around the words ONE CENT, written as a fraction, with "100" as the denominator. Designed by Henry Voigt, the aptly-named "flowing hair chain cent" was only minted for one year.

The likeness of Lady Liberty on the front underwent numerous revisions during the 60-plus years that the so-called large

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