Posts Tagged ‘Lincoln’

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

Thursday February the 12th marks the 200 th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. To mark the occasion the U.S. Mint is releasing a special commemorative silver dollar coin.

The coin was designed as part of the Lincoln bi-centennial celebrations, and a portion of the revenues raised from the sales of these coins are to be paid to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission to “further its work in planning the celebration of Lincoln’s bicentennial and the continued study of his life.”

The obverse features the bust of president Lincoln the design of which was inspired by the Daniel Chester French sculpture of the President that sits inside the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. along with the words “Liberty” and “In God We Trust” with the date 2009. The reverse bears the last 43 words of Lincolns most famous speech, the Gettysburg Address, contained in a within a laurel wreath:

“WE HERE HIGHLY RESOLVE THAT THESE DEAD SHALL NOT HAVE DIED IN VAIN - THAT THIS NATION, UNDER GOD, SHALL HAVE A NEW BIRTH OF FREEDOM - AND THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, FOR THE PEOPLE, SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH. “

A banner below the inscription contains Lincoln’s signature flanked by the words “ONE DOLLAR” and “E PLURIBUS UNUM”. The words “United States of America” round off the design. It appears the coin will have a milled edge.

Mintage figures have been set at a total of 500 000 across all grades, although 50 000 proof coins will be held in reserve to compile a special collectors set containing the Proof Silver dollar as well as all four pennies(1c) coins to be released later this year. In order to assure that the coin can remain available for everyone a household limit of 100 coins has been placed on all orders. A special introductory period will run until 5:00 pm (ET) on 16th of March 2009 where the coin will be on offer at a reduced price. The prices are thus as follows :

The 2009 Abraham Lincoln commemorative Silver Dollar coin will go on sale from February 12, 2009 at 12:00 noon (ET).  The product page for the U.S. Mint’s website can be found here for the Proof version :

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=14732&langId=-1

and for the Uncirculated coin here :

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10001&storeId=10001&productId=14733&langId=-1

Interestingly the first of the Lincoln penny coins, the Log Cabin design, was due to be released into circulation on the same day however little has been mentioned of them yet. The U.S. Mint will be launching the new cent at a function at Hodgenville, Kentucky on the 12th of this month but other than that little is known about the planned release of this anticipated coin.

For more images of the 2009 Lincoln coins go to the WNN Image library