NumismaticBlog.com

Designer: Anthony de Francisci

Number Authorized: 100,000, May 10th 1920

Number Made:  50,028

Melted: None

Price Sold for : $1.00

Approximate Value now: $170.00 in MS60

This coin was produced to celebrate the Centennial of the state of Maine’s acceptance into the Union as a free state. Maine was settled in 1604 and by royal charter was it’s own Provence, but by 1658 Maine came under control of Massachusetts. This did not sit well with the settlers of this province and to make matters worse during the war of 1812 Massachusetts did a poor job of supporting and protecting Maine form the British invaders. All of this aggravation and animosity toward Massachusetts led to Maine’s petition to the federal government to become a state.   Maine was accepted as the 23rd state on March 15, 1820. This was apart of the Missouri compromise.

The coin was originally intended to sell at the centennial celebration in Portland Maine, but the coins got there too  late, half were sold by years end and the rest though the state treasurer.

On the obverse we see Maine’s coat of arms that became the state seal. on the left we see a husbandman (farmer) resting on a scythe on the right a sailor resting on an anchor, these devices have a dual meaning. They are representing land,  sea, fishing, and farming in Maine. In the middle they have a Maine pine with a Moose-Deer resting below. The pine represents the timber resource available the state motto is “Pine Tree State”. The deer is a common deer in that area. The star on top is the North star, and the motto “dirigo” directly translated means “I direct” or I Guide” As the North Star has been considered the mariner’s guide, as it here is intended to represent the State. On the reverse we see a pine wreath.   The rest of the coin’s design is obvious and needs no explanation.

      The Lincoln cent was first produced in 1909, 100 years after Lincoln’s birth in 1809. Many numismatists started out collecting Lincoln cents, and is still a favorite among collectors today. it’s has had 100 years of production to help create many varieties and oddities to collect. Many people will call this coin a penny.  Even Merriam-Webster’s dictionary dances around the definition and does not directly implicate the us cent was to be called a penny. A penny is an English monetary unit, our coin is based on the centavo or cent. Since our currency is based on the Spanish milled dollar, it seems appropriate to call the smallest unit a cent. But I have called our small coin a penny in casual conversation. Calling it a penny is appropriate in my opinion because the word can remind us how diverse our heritage is, we used Spanish standards, but we spoke English and was used to using English coinage.  Such a mix is the melting pot of the United States. Another neat piece of trivia is that by US law the one cent coin is NOT legal tender over 100 cents per transaction. This was to keep you from paying your taxes in pennies.

     The one cent is the most abused and loved coin. We have placed it on railroad tracks to see it get squished. Thrown it into wishing wells. Pressed them in elongating presses. Used them in science experiments. Put them inside the walls of newly built houses as a good luck charm. Stamped advertisements on them. Also stamped a second head on them as in the infamous jfk cent. Used them to replace a missing fuse in our fuse boxes (although i don’t recommend that.)  Also used them as an improvised  screwdriver. They have been made every year  since 1909 without fail. They have been made from bronze, steel, zinc, and made from spent brass shell cartridges from WWII.  the reverse of the coin was changed from the wheat reverse to the memorial  reverse  in 1959.  Now in honor of it’s 100th anniversary the us mint is going to produce 4 new reverse designs to the cent.       

I believe the new cent designs will be well accepted by the public. The new coin will be made in copper plated zinc in the same composition as the currently minted cent. A numismatic version will be made from the old 95 % copper plainchant, with identical metal content as the 1909 one cent coin, but will not be put into circulation. 

The future of the one cent coin is not very  clear now, some have proposed making them out of some kind of plastic, some want to do away with them forever. But there is a store that i know, that will sell you a gummy fish for 2 cents. Kids in this town can still feel like the lowly copper is still real money.