[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 2302]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     A TRIBUTE TO THE LINCOLN PENNY

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                          HON. ROBERT A. BRADY

                            of pennsylvania

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 12, 2015

  Mr. BRADY of Pennsylvania. Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor our 16th 
President Abraham Lincoln and his first and most enduring monument, the 
United States penny. Just three years after adoption of the U.S. 
Constitution, Congress passed The Coinage Act in 1792 and established 
the U.S. Mint. In 1793, the first federal building constructed in the 
then-capital city of Philadelphia, minted the first circulating coins, 
11,178 copper cents. Mr. Speaker, I would like to point out that the 
Mint was and remains in my own district and that it continues to 
produce high quality products for the American people. And true to its 
Philadelphia roots, the first pennies were designed by one of our 
town's most famous sons, Benjamin Franklin.
  In 1909, after several design and composition changes, the penny's 
design was changed to honor President Lincoln, the first real person to 
appear on an American coin. The Lincoln penny is the longest used 
design of any American coin, and its release was timed to honor his 
100th birthday.
  The Lincoln penny was the first U.S. coin to carry the motto ``In God 
We Trust,'' and it preceded by five years the construction of the 
Lincoln Memorial. For generations of Americans, the penny has served as 
a memorial to the first President assassinated in office, as well as a 
reminder of the brutal Civil War that threatened to end the American 
experiment, and the liberation of the enslaved African.
  Mr. Speaker, the penny is the most common and most highly circulated 
coin in the United States. 62 percent of the 11.2 billion new coins put 
into circulation by the U.S. Mint in fiscal year 2013 were pennies. The 
Mint has shipped 90 billion new pennies since 2000. We can clearly see 
that demand for the penny remains high and we need to keep minting it.
  I am proud that my own City of Philadelphia was the first and longest 
running producer of the penny. As we celebrate President Lincoln's 
206th birthday, I am pleased to honor him, and the coin that 
commemorates his place in our history.

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