Information about Portrait: Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (1809 - 1865) was an American statesman and lawyer who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 to 1865. Lincoln led the nation through the American Civil War, the country's greatest moral, constitutional, and political crisis. He succeeded in preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, bolstering the federal government, and modernising the U.S. economy. His portrait has appeared on the obverse of American one cent coins since 1909.

In January 1909, the United States Mint engaged Victor David Brenner to design a cent depicting the late president Abraham Lincoln, 1909 being the centennial year of his birth. It was the first widely circulating design of a U.S. president on a coin, an idea that had been seen as too monarchical in the past, namely by George Washington. Nevertheless, Brenner's design was eventually approved, and the new coins were issued to great public interest on August 2, 1909. This was a break with previous American numismatic tradition; before the Lincoln cent, no regularly circulating U.S. coin had featured an actual person, as opposed to idealised personifications such as of Liberty.

Brenner had put his full surname on the obverse in the first design for the portrait, in keeping with European tradition (he had studied in France) but this was rejected. In the first adopted version of the Lincoln Cent, the designer's initials only (VDB) appear on the reverse at its base. However, even this was deemed too prominent once the coins were issued, and they were removed within days of the release. The initials were restored, this time smaller, on Lincoln's shoulder, in 1918.

Abraham Lincoln on a one cent coin

United States / One Cent 2008 Lincoln Memorial

The portrait has been shown on this type of coins since 1909.