Introducing the Penny

Introducing the Penny

Hi, let me introduce myself! I'm a United States coin. My friends call me " Penny. " My name comes from a German word, pfennig (FEN-nig), which means " coin. "

You might have other coins that look like me in your pocket. We are each worth one cent. That's 1/100 of a dollar. That means it takes exactly one hundred of me and my friends to equal one dollar.

I was born when the United States first became a country. In 1792, the U. S. government created the U. S. Mint. A mint is a factory where coins are made. One of the first coins the government made was me, the one-cent coin! In 1787, my good friend Ben Franklin suggested how I should look. But over the years, my look has changed several times.

For a while, I carried a picture of Lady Liberty wearing a Native American headdress. This picture appeared on my obverse, or my face. My back is called-you guessed it-my reverse. You probably call it " heads" and “ tails! "

In 1909, I got an important makeover. America decided to honor President Abraham Lincoln by putting his picture on me. On my reverse, you could see stalks, or stems, of wheat. Some folks called me " the wheat penny. " Look at all the pennies in your pocket. You might find an old wheat penny.