One Cent 2021 Union Shield, Coin from United States - detailed information

The United States one-cent coin (often called a penny, from the British coin of the same name) is a unit of currency equalling one-hundredth of a United States dollar. The cent's symbol is ¢. It has been the lowest-value physical unit of U.S. currency since the abolition of the half-cent in 1857.

The earliest one cent coins were large and made of copper (1793 - 1857). After a brief transition through copper-nickel until 1864, the denomination changed to bronze and a much smaller size; after 1982, one cent coins are made of copper-clad zinc.

In 1909, the Lincoln Cent was introduced to mark the centenary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. This was the first time when an actual person (and not an abstract symbol such as Liberty) was depicted on American coins. The obverse of the coin shows a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by Victor David Brenner. There have been three definitive reverses - Wheat Penny (1909 - 1958), Lincoln Memorial (1959 - 2008) and Union Shield (2010 - present).

In 2009, to mark the Lincoln Bicentennial (200 years since his birth), four different one-year type circulating commemorative cents issued, after which the Shield reverse was introduced. The Presidential $1 Coin Act required that the cent, beginning in 2010, "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country", so the shield was selected as a symbol of unity.

One Cent coins issued in 2021 have now been in circulation for only four years.