The second redesigned Lincoln 1c coin from the United States for 2009 is being released today, May 14 2009, by the U.S. Mint. The second coin in a series of four circulating commemoratives celebrating the live of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th President of the United States, scheduled for release this year represents Lincoln’s “formative years” spent largely in Indiana.

The coin has been dubbed as the “Rail Splitter penny” by the collecting community at large due to it’s design that depicts a young Lincoln reading a book while taking a break from working as a rail splitter in Indiana.

In the Fall of 1816 a young Lincoln(now 7 years old) moved from his native Kentucky to Perry County, Indiana along with his parents, Thomas and Nancy Lincoln. Although the demands of frontier life left little time for formal education, of which Lincoln only ever gained about 18 month worth, his parents instilled in him a love for books and reading which Abraham embraced to educated himself through reading such works as “Life of Washington,” “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,” “Robinson Crusoe and The Arabian Nights” all by the age of 11. It is said that he could often be seen carrying a book along with his axe.

In 1830 the Lincoln family relocated to Illinois, first to in Macon County and a year later to Coles County. It is here that Abraham, now 22 struck out on his own. He was a impressive figure at 6′ 4″ (app. 1.93 m) and soon garnered a reputation as a skilled local wrestler as well as being very handy with an axe.

The new coin is set to be officially released at a launch ceremony at Lincoln Amphitheatre situated at the Lincoln State Park within Lincoln City, Indiana after which bills may be exchanged for rolls of the coin at a special coin exchange. The coins will also be available at selected U.S. Mint centers in Washington D.C and (according to some sources)New York City throughout the day. A Minimum of two rolls will be made available per person and a reported maximum of 12 rolls could be obtained per person. This limit was instituted following the overwhelming response that was received for the first coin in the series.  The coins are also being made available for purchase through the U.S. Mint website.

The coins are available in a two roll set comprising of two 50 coin rolls, one each from the Denver and Philadelphia minting facilities. The set is priced at $8.95 and are presented in a special U.S. Mint wrapper depicting the coin. Sales via the website will be strictly limited to 5 sets per household and are handled in a first-come first-serve basis. Sales open at 12 noon(E.T.) on 14 May 2009. Only a limited number of these sets will be released, and if sales of the first coin are anything to go by then it is set to sell out fairly quickly.

The coins can be viewed on the U.S. Mint’ product page

High resolution images of the coin may be viewed at the World Numismatic News Media Library