A Penny for Your Thoughts?

            I was cleaning my living room this morning and wiping the many odds and ends of the coffee table, including a pile of loose change. Being a fastidious saver, I separated the silver change from the copper  to deposit them in the correct containers. I segregate change between a large clear jug meant for some time in my future and a tin box I use to save money to spend frivolously on my nephews, respectively. When I was dropping the pennies into my nephew-box I noticed a few of them looked quite pristine and had a strange emblem on the back which I had never seen before. Maybe I'm a little late in the game bringing this up, but it was just this week that one of these 2010 pennies made its way to me. For some reason, the change (har har) of design in this low value coin has me surprisingly unsettled.

My first thought was, "Wow, thats interesting." 

My following thought went more like, "Wow, thats rather ugly." 

            The new look is supposed to contain symbolism that is important to Americans, that being the 13 stripes (representing the colonies) on what appears to be the Captain America shield with a banner signifying "a single union in support of the federal government" rolled out across it. Being an art major, design and presentation strike me with the most force. Maybe its just my love of architecture. Even still, I truly relish the detail used to pack our currency with symbols and intricate patterns. Being able to find the tiny Lincoln in the little copper colored monument was my favorite part of the coin. William Bostwick said it best, "Gone is the wonderful level of detail. The new design is simplistic and fake-looking. The penny is valueless enough as it is, and a one-dimensional design like this only makes matters worse. With the humble penny now a mess, I'm hoarding my $1 bills."

            Anyhoo, I know there are more important things to worry about than the artistic integrity of one side on a coin whose relevance in our economy is constantly in question. However, I felt that in some way the (now old) penny needed to be honored and given at least a pseudo-proper send-off. Comparatively, it was quite a classy coin.

Lincoln Memorial Penny: You served us well from 1959-2008