New Lincoln penny, unveiled here, to feature union shield

Ah, the wheat penny.

Stalks of wheat such as those that graced the back of the Lincoln penny from its inception in 1909 until 1958 bring back memories of a simpler time, of amber waves of grain, of … the Weimar Republic?

Believe it.

The U.S. Mint issued four different Lincoln pennies in 2009, to commemorate the bicentennial of Lincoln’s birth. The differences were all on the “tails” side of the penny, including one design that depicted the Old State Capitol in Springfield.

This year, the Mint will issue another tails design, designed to last into the indefinite future. The tails side of the 2010 penny – to be formally released next month in Springfield – will feature what is known as the union shield, bearing the motto “E pluribus unum” (“Out of many, one”). But the choice wasn’t a simple one.

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts (a group that includes architects, art experts and others who make their livings creating pretty things) first recommended that 13 stalks of bound wheat decorate the back of the 2010 penny. Then, however, someone discovered that shafts of wheat also appeared on German coins minted during the 1920s and 1930s, the era when the German government was known as the Weimar Republic.

“It was pointed out that it started before the Nazi era, but nevertheless,” recalls John Alexander, a University of Cincinnati historian who sits on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which, like the CFA, recommends coin designs to the secretary of the treasury.

It turned out that Eastern Bloc countries, Czechoslovakia being one, also favored bound wheat stalks on coins sporting sickles back when the Soviet Union had hundreds of nuclear missiles pointed at the U.S.

Faster than you can say “Comrade Lincoln,” the Mint ditched the CFA’s choice and called the commission back to the drawing board. With 18 designs to choose from, the commission picked an image of the U.S. flag from the Civil War, when the banner had 34 stars.

Bad call, according to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which instead endorsed the union shield. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner endorsed that design in November, when the decision became final.

This wasn’t the first time that disagreements over design of the penny have broken out since Congress decreed the one-cent piece should be re-designed in honor of Lincoln’s 200th birthday. The 2009 bicentennial penny commemorating Lincoln’s years in Illinois provoked so much controversy that U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, stepped in, asking then-Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson to reject recommendations from both the commission and the citizens advisory committee. Paulson did, and so it was that the Old State Capitol penny was issued last year.

The union shield is perhaps even more nostalgic than wheat, given that Indian head pennies minted during the Civil War included union shields.

“It was the symbol of the day, as far as the Civil War,” said Gary Marks, a member of the citizens advisory committee. “When people saw that, they knew what it meant: It was a northern symbol.”

Wheat, Marks said, is a symbol of prosperity, and a flag with 34 stars wouldn’t look any different than a modern flag on a coin the size of a penny. The union shield, by contrast, is unique symbol of unity and exactly what Congress intended when it passed the law requiring that the design reflect Lincoln’s legacy of preserving the union, he said.

Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World magazine, is reserving judgment.

“I think it will work,” Deisher said. “I don’t think it’s the most creative design I’ve seen. We’ve not even seen a model of this. It’s hard to make a final judgment from a design sketch.”

Marks, who says he was a shield guy from the start, called the penny design the most important work he’s done while on the citizens committee.

“It’s the king of decisions that I will have the privilege to weigh in on,” he said. “The penny is the most widely produced coin in our nation by far.”

Bruce Rushton can be reached at 788-1542.

Penny release to be in Springfield

The 2010 Lincoln penny will be unveiled Feb. 11 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Details, including the time of the ceremony and who will speak, have yet to be decided, said David Blanchette, spokesman for the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency.

This will be the second time in less than a year that a new penny has been formally released in Springfield. In July, U.S. Mint officials and others came to Springfield for the release of the 2009 Lincoln bicentennial penny that commemorated Lincoln’s professional life.

That penny – the third of four different designs issued in 2009 -- depicts Lincoln in front of the Old Capitol in Springfield, and the penny was released on the Old Capitol grounds.

An estimated 3,000 people, many of them coin collectors and dealers, attended that release.