What Can You Learn from a Lincoln Cent?
If a Lincoln cent were the only artifact left from the United States, what could future archaeologists learn about the nation that made it?
A friend of mine described an interesting question one of his high school teachers had presented to her class many years ago: assume that the United States of America had disappeared and that a thousand years later archeologists could only find one Lincoln Cent as an artifact from the nation’s existence. What kind of information could you determine or infer solely from examining this coin?
Since this was back in the late 1960s when the question was asked, the Lincoln cent had a metal composition of 95 percent copper and, depending on the date, either 5 percent tin and zinc or 5 percent zinc for the rest of the alloy.
What would you be able to deduce by examining this coin?
The first thing that strikes me is that it is obviously manufactured rather than occurring naturally in nature. In fact, it would take a relatively high degree of technology to produce a coin with so much detail and perfectly round. Also, since the metal composition was either two or three different metals, that indicates that the metals were mined, almost certainly from different sources.
Therefore, the United States of America must have had a somewhat involved manufacturing capability, had mining activity, and had the ability to transport mined metals to a place where they could be smelted and refined before they were formed into an alloy to manufacture the coin. The method of production would indicate that the designs were struck onto the surfaces rather than the item being cast in a mold.
Since it could be deduced that the Lincoln Cent was precisely manufactured, it could be inferred that there were likely more than one of these pieces made.
The letters and numbers would indicate they were presenting some information, so it would help identify the language of the United States of America. If the archeologist didn’t understand English or Latin, it might not be evident which groups of letters referred to what information. Would this piece even be obvious that it was used as a medium of exchange?
If the same numbers and calendars were still being used or the archeologist had reference materials, it could be possible to identify the date of the coin.
Then you would have even more questions about what happened to the United States of America if it was advanced enough to have produced this intricate piece of metal yet left no other identifiable artifacts.
This kind of open-ended question could provoke an interesting discussion if teachers were to ask it in their classes, or if it was asked at a coin club meeting. Who wants to try it?
Last column’s numismatic trivia question.
Last time I asked, what was the origin of the term “cent”? The Latin word centum means one hundred. Words like century refer to one hundred years. In a monetary system, a cent is equal to one-hundredth (1/100) of the basic currency unit. Similarly, the term percent refers to a fraction of a base unit.
This week’s trivia question.
Here is this column’s question. What is the origin of the cent sign (¢)? Come back next week for the answer.
Patrick A. Heller was honored as a 2019 FUN Numismatic Ambassador. He is also the recipient of the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, the 2017 Exemplary Service Award, the 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award, and the 2008 Presidential Award. Over the years, he has also been honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild, Professional Numismatists Guild, National Coin & Bullion Association, and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” a quarterly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. He now volunteers with the National Coin & Bullion Association as its Industry Issues Advisor. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries, "Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So,” and “Important News You Need To Know,” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio archives posted at www.1320wils.com).
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