1 Cent, United States, 1974
date: label: date made
content: 1974
name: label: mint
content: U.S. Mint, Philadelphia
notes: label: Description
content: This one-cent piece from 1974 is perfectly normal-except for one thing. It was struck in aluminum rather than bronze. Lincoln's bust graces the obverse, just as it has done for over ninety-five years.
label: Description
content: And the Lincoln Memorial appears on the reverse, just as it has since the closing years of the Eisenhower Administration. The choice of aluminum over bronze is what makes this coin legendary. How did it happen, and why?
label: Description
content: The cause was a rise in the price of copper. By the early 1970s, it cost nearly as much to mint a cent as the coin was worth. While mints are not, ostensibly, set up as profit-making enterprises, the people who run them would rather not lose money. The United States Mint is no exception.
label: Description
content: The U. S. Mint began testing other, cheaper metals for the cent, just in case the price of copper kept rising. Aluminum was an obvious candidate. It's easy on coin dies and takes a lovely, silvery impression. It's also a handsome metal, and virtually tarnish-free.
label: Description
content: So the Mint struck a batch of aluminum cent patterns, the Mint Director gave many to VIP's as samples of the proposed new cent-and then failed to get many of them back! That being said, this piece is the only one that hobbyists are ever likely to see. Ironically, the Mint finally did switch to a cheaper metal for cents in the early 1980s, but it chose copper-plated zinc, not aluminum.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: National Numismatic Collection
label: See more items in
content: Coins
label: See more items in
content: Numismatics
label: See more items in
content: Coins, Currency and Medals
label: See more items in
content: Legendary Coins
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Zoomable Image and Details
label: Related Publication
content: Glossary of Coins and Currency Terms
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/coins/glossary.cfm
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Charles B. Holstein
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: NU.75.45.1
label: accession number
content: 319094
label: catalog number
content: 75.45.1
objectType: label: Object Name
content: coin
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: aluminum (overall metal)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis)
label: Physical Description
content: 0 (overall die axis measurement)
label: Physical Description
content: struck (overall production method)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 1 mm x 19.5 mm; 1/32 in x 25/32 in