New penny designed partly in Philadelphia

As a teen, Charles Vickers, a sculptor/engraver for the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, had to split firewood using a wedge and a wood-headed hammer called a maul.

So, a few years ago, when the mint assigned him to submit one of four new designs for the penny, an image immediately came to the Jenkintown gentleman's mind: Lincoln's reading a book while taking a break from splitting logs with a double-banded maul.

Yesterday morning, Treasury officials unveiled Vickers' design and three others for the back of the penny, the first design changes in 50 years. The new coins will start to appear in February.

Unfortunate timing, perhaps. The country's financial crisis and the staggering bailout proposal using taxpayer dollars quickly drew attention to an old debate over the penny's actual value and utility.

It now costs 1.4 cents to make each coin of copper-plated zinc, as specified by law, said U.S. Mint spokeswoman Carla Coolman in Washington. Calculate that out and the 5 billion pennies - $50 million worth - minted so far this year cost about $70 million to make.

The Treasury is quick to point out that it has requested authority to use cheaper materials to make pennies. It also says the cost of implementing a new design is "nominal." The nickel is even worse - last year, it cost 9.5 cents, on average, to make one.

Lay the blame, or credit, on Congress. The new designs were mandated under the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005, Coolman said.

Shortly before that vote, a 2004 Harris poll found 59 percent of Americans favored keeping the penny. A more recent poll, commissioned in 2007 by a private coin-counting firm, Coinstar Inc., put support at 66 percent.

Where the sentiment might land today, amid the financial crisis, is anybody's guess. Experts and officials are acutely attuned to the issue. Several bills now pending in Congress would allow the Mint to change the coin's composition, and one would require use of steel and copper coloring.

Gary Adkins, president of the Professional Numismatists Guild, told the Cox News Service that "a penny doesn't get you anything anymore," even if the new designs may appeal to enthusiasts.

Lincoln's face won't change, but on Feb. 12 - 200 years after the 16th president was born, and 100 years after the Lincoln debuted - the first of four new images will begin appearing on the reverse.

Gone will be the Lincoln Memorial. Each new penny image will represent a stage in Lincoln's life, starting with a log cabin representing his Kentucky childhood.

New images will follow every three months: Vickers' design of Lincoln's Indiana fence-building days; then "Honest Abe" at the State Capitol in Illinois; finishing with a depiction of construction work on the U.S. Capitol's dome during his presidency.

Philadelphia Mint sculptor/engraver Joseph Menna, 38, of Bordentown, N.J., "sculpted" the U.S. dome image, from a design by independent artist Susan Gamble.

Menna never touched any clay. All his work was done on a computer, by moving an electronic stylus in midair to "carve" what may be one of the most intricate designs ever on a U.S. coin, he said.

Vickers, 71, the only person to both draw and sculpt one of the new designs, executed his in clay after refining his hand drawing on a computer.

Consultants made a few changes. Vickers gave Lincoln a stack of books, but historians said he probably read one at a time. Lincoln should look younger, too.

The maul initially got the ax - but then was restored when further research showed that, yes, indeed, Lincoln might have used a tool just like that.

A mold was used to re-create the original clay creation in plaster, which underwent further molding and sculpting to become the final plaster version that sits on Vickers' desk on Independence Mall.

Then, using a 3-D scanner, Vickers' sculpture was loaded into a computer, resulting in a virtual design just like Menna's.

In Philadelphia, the designs ultimately are turned into master dies, which are then used in both Philadelphia and Denver to make the actual coins.

As the Mint's first virtual sculptor, Menna designed its first virtually sculpted circulating coin, a dollar depicting President James Monroe, which came out early this year.

A model of it sits on the desk in Menna's work area, which is also graced by some of his freelance designs of an Iron Man villain and other action figures.

(Speaking of superheroes, Vickers and his wife, Norma, have a son, Jamie, who, as a professional animator in Japan, did some sequences for the Batman megahit The Dark Knight.)

This digital-sculpting process has been used for quarter and dollar coins before, but never for a penny, Menna said.

Vickers, who designed the back for the new Alaska quarters as well as President Bush's 2001 inaugural medal, said he was pleased with the results.

"I think it turned out great. . . . I think the collectors will go for it."