Hasta La Ideas

(Photos: The United States Mint)

We once knew someone who was so frustrated by pennies that he promptly disposed of any that he received. We couldn’t relate. But perhaps the anti-penny pincher will reconsider now that the coin has gotten a makeover to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln‘s birth. The first redesigned penny in 50 years enters circulation today. It features a log cabin on the tails side, emblematic of Lincoln’s Kentucky roots and designed by Richard Masters. And the fun doesn’t stop with log cabins (it never does)! That’s just the first of four new designs to look out for on 2009 pennies. The other three depict Lincoln’s formative years in Indiana (a rail-splitting Abe designed by Charles Vickers), his professional life in Illinois (designed by Joel Iskowitz), and his presidency in Washington, D.C. (designer Susan Gamble‘s poignant scene of a half-finished Capitol dome). A new design will be issued every three months, which means that you have a new penny to look forward to every quarter.

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