The Unknown History of Pennies

You probably know about Lincoln cent and maybe you think they are not important to you because they is almost worthless. But that is not true, Lincoln cents have been struck since 1909. So, they have a long history.

In 1905, U.S. hired Augustus Saint-Gaudens to work on a new mint design for pennies. He designed many coins and he designed Double Eagle, too. He decided to design Lincoln’s head on penny because it was Lincoln’s 100th birthday in 1909. In 1907, Saint-Gaudens passed away before pennies were minted. In 1909, U.S. started to mint them and called them Wheat pennies because their reverse has two wheat ears.

In 1959, Wheat pennies were replaced with Lincoln’s Memorial for Lincoln’s 150th birthday. In 2009, Lincoln’s 200th birthday, the government decided to mint four new reverse designs. In 2010, the government hired a new coin designer and minted the new pennies and called them Union Shield.

I think the Lincoln cent will stop being minted because the process of minting them is more expensive than one cent. In Canada, they stopped make them. So, maybe U.S. will stop minting them.

The 1913 Liberty Head Nickels

The 1913 Liberty Head Nickel

A limited number of 1913 Liberty Head Nickels were produced. So, there are 5 of 1913 Liberty Head Nickels that exist today.

In early 1913, the government minted them, and then they decided to introduce new nickels and replace the Liberty Head Nickels with Indian Head Nickels.

The 1913 Indian Head Nickel

Then the government decided to give away the Liberty Head Nickels to their best employee in 1913, Samuel Brown.

Louis E. Eliasberg

Samuel Brown decided to sell them in January 1924. The first person who purchased from him was Colonel E.H.R Green. He kept the coin until he died in 1936. His things were sold at an auction. Two coin dealers who brought his coin, then sold it to a famous coin collector, Louis E. Eliasberg. When he died, his coin went to Bowers and Merena  Auctions for $1,485,000, then it was auctioned off again in March 2001.







The price climbed up to $1,840,00. In May 2005, a person brought this coin for $4,150,000. In 2007, another person from California brought this coin for 5 million dollars.

The 1933 Double Eagle

        Head                                            Tail         

King Farouk

This coin is called Double Eagle, minted in 1933.

In 1933, the U.S. government decided to make the coins, about half of million were minted. In a few months, the treasurer realized soldiers needed money for supplies for war, but the government didn’t have any money. So, they needed Double Eagles 1933 to get gold. The government decided to melt all, but some people stole from them.

King Farouk of Egypt, also known as King of coin collection, owned 1913 Liberty Head coin. In 1944, he brought 1933 Double Eagle from the person who stole the coin. In 1952, King Farouk was deposed; he lost everything that he owned. All things that belonged to him were sold at auction. U.S. Government requested return of the coin, but they couldn’t find that coin.

In 1996, U.S. Secret Service Agents found that a man from U.K. who stole 1933 Double Eagle from King Farouk. The man was arrested and government took the coin to U.S. again. On July 30, 2002, the coin was sold to an unknown person for nearly 7.6 millions dollars.

Hello, my name is Gabriel; I was born on March 16, 1999. I live in Austin, Texas. I go to school called Texas School for the Deaf (TSD); also I am in 7th grade.
    
Collecting rare coins is one of my most favorite hobbies of all because if you have a 200-year-old coin and you hold it, you have 200 years of history in your hand. I have few Mercury dimes (dimes that made in 1916 to 1945 only), a peace dollar, some under 1964 nickels and pennies.

So, I will talk about coins and tell you facts about rare coins. I hope you will enjoy my blog.

Mercury Dime