First 2010 cent reported

Drum roll, please.

The first report of a 2010 cent to be found in circulation came to me yesterday.

Collectors are eager to see the new Shield design to see how it compares to the line drawing we have been using to illustrate it during the last couple of months.

Bill Gray, a snowbird from Pennsylvania, found the new cent while he and and his wife are enjoying the sunshine and warm weather far to the south of their home state.

He wrote, “I received three 2010 Lincoln cents with shield in change on 1-19-2010 in Juana Diaz, Puerto Rico (near Ponce).”

Puerto Rico was an early recipient of the 2009 Lincoln cents also.

Perhaps I will soon hear from collectors in California, Texas, or Florida, which often are the locations of other early sightings.

My thanks go to the snowbird.

I also appreciate his invitation:

“Come on down! Careful of the sun if you haven’t seen much of it since September.”

Ah, sun. What’s that?