By Holly Watt
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

The U.S. Mint unveiled four new penny designs yesterday to commemorate the 2009 bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth.

The coins will debut on Presidents' Day next February, and distribution will continue through the year. The redesign will affect only the "tails" side of the Lincoln penny, which replaced the Indian-head cent in 1909, 100 years after the 16th president's birth.

While the "heads" side will continue to bear Lincoln's likeness and the motto "In God We Trust," the reverse side will feature one of four images: a log cabin representing Lincoln's humble roots in Kentucky, a portrait of young Lincoln studying while working as a rail splitter in Indiana, a view of Lincoln as a young Illinois state senator, and a half-built Capitol to symbolize Lincoln's efforts to preserve the union.

It is the first redesign of the coin in 50 years -- in 1959, the Lincoln Memorial replaced two stalks of wheat as the "tails" image. Officials say they will also unveil a Lincoln commemorative dollar coin next year.

Making pennies has become a costly proposition for the U.S. Treasury. Prices of zinc and copper have spiraled in recent years, and it now costs 1.4 cents to make the 1-cent coin. So far this year, 3.6 billion pennies have been minted -- $36 million worth of change costing $50.4 million to produce.

Congress is reassessing the metal content of coinage, including a suggestion that the U.S. Mint produce pennies from steel, a metal last used for the coin during World War II.

Last year, the Mint manufactured 7.4 billion pennies, a drop from the 8.2 billion produced in 2006.

Some have suggested that the penny may soon become obsolete. In February, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. said that there was "great sentiment" surrounding the coin but acknowledged that "I don't think it's politically doable to eliminate the penny."