Lincoln wheat pennies were first introduced in 1909 by the United States Mint. The United States Mint originally hired Augustus St. Gaudens to design the new cent but died in 1907 before being able to finish submitting designs for the new cent. The Mint then hired Victor D. Brenner to design the wheat cent, in which he decided to memorialize the late president Abraham Lincoln due to 1909 being the centennial year of his birth.

The design features two ears of wheat in memorial style, symbolic of America’s agricultural heritage. While the Lincoln has been minted continuously since 1909, the Wheat Ear reverse was struck only until 1958. The following year, a new reverse design was introduced featuring the Lincoln memorial. All were minted of 95% copper except the 1943 coin, which was struck of zinc-coated steel when copper was needed during World War II. Often called “Wheaties” by collector, these classic coins were struck at the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco Mints.