Stolidus Opus

Spock: "Don't grieve, Admiral. It is logical. The needs of the many outweigh..."
Kirk: "...the needs of the few."
Spock: "...Or the one."

Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Two weeks ago when I wrote Does this Make Cents?, I had written a history of the U.S. penny to be included in that post. But based on the context of that piece, I thought it would be better served as a seperate entry. After two weeks of fighting my obsession with a need for a complete history and the OCD that it manifests, I have realized the only person really interested in a complete history of the U.S. penny is me. For everyone else it would have been a Stolidus Opus, a dull work. So I put it to rest.




I am a coin collector. My first purchase was at 13 years old, it was an 1826 large head Liberty one cent piece.
The cost was $8.00. I was amazed that something so old was so relatively inexpensive. The dealer explained many of the reasons that make up a coins value. The metal content has a lot to do with its total price. Pennies, which were made of copper, tended to be the least expensive coins to acquire. This seemed like a great place to start. Years later when the Hunt brothers played their games with the silver market, many people including my parents sold the old silver coins that they had stashed in safes and shoe boxes. These coins, that helped mark the great mining strikes in the late 19th century, were melted away for the base metal value. History was being destroyed, and that drove me crazy. I was so glad to be a collector of pennies because their value historically would always outweigh their elemental worth.

History had been the reason I had bought that 1826 one cent piece in the first place. The idea that people unknown to me--some famous, some infamous, most probably average, but all certainly dead--had held the coin was magic to me. I am holding that very coin in my hand while I blog and it still thrills me. The power of numismatics.

So I guess that becomes my thought for today, that coins are a part of our history, that their value--monetary, metallic and historic--all change based on the economy, on the world market and the understanding of who we were, who we are and who we might become.

I would never forgive myself for totally removing the historical spin, so let me leave you with these quick notes.

The current design of the U.S. penny with Abraham Lincoln on its obverse was first minted in 1909 to mark the 100th anniversay of Lincoln's birth. U.S. coins had been minted since 1792, yet this was the first time a president's image appeared on a coin. 50 years later, the reverse of that coin was changed to include an image of the Lincoln Memorial, which did not exist in 1909. Next year will mark the 100th anniversary of the Lincoln one cent and the 200th anniversay of the birth of our 16th president. In commeration, four new Lincoln head pennies will be minted. I hope by not forcing the loyal readers of this blog to sit through the first 117 years of the U.S. penny, I have, like Mr. Spock, considered the needs of the many above the needs of one.

And speaking of one, here is one more thing: the U.S. Mint refers to the penny as a cent. Why we call it a penny, I will leave for another post...Damn, I did it again!