There's a change in that change in your in your pocket.

While President Lincoln's profile still adorns the front of the newly minted penny, it's a different story on the other side of the coin.

Gone is the Lincoln Memorial. Now you'll find a union shield (above) with a scroll draped across and the inscription ONE CENT.

Right off the bat, apologies to the U.S. Mint when it comes to my terminology.

Officially it's not a penny. The folks at the U.S. Mint officially call it the 2010 Lincoln One Cent Coin. Here's what the mint has to say about the new design for the penny: OK. Have you noticed the change in your change yet?

Count em, more than 3.6 billion of the new once cent coins have been stamped out by the U.S. Mint in the last year at coin making facilities in both Philadelphia and Denver. The Secretary of the Treasury approved the reverse design for the coin after consultation with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and review by the Citizen's Coinage Advisory Committee. Can you say bureaucracy? From the department of "I did not know", the familiar Victor David Brenner likeness of President Lincoln on the front of the penny has appeared on the coin since 1909!

In 1857, Congress authorized the United States Mint to strike the cent with 88 percent copper and 12 percent nickel. The "shape and size" would be determined by the United States Mint Director, with the approval of the Treasury Secretary.

From 1909 to 1958, the Lincoln obverse was paired with a reverse that featured a wheat design in which two sheaves of wheat flanked the words ONE CENT and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. It is commonly known as the "wheat penny." From 1959 to 2008, the reverse featured an image of the Lincoln Memorial designed by Frank Gasparro. It commemorated the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth.

In 2009, the United States Mint issued four different one-cent coins in recognition of the bicentennial of President Abraham Lincoln's birth and the 100th anniversary of the first issuance of the Lincoln cent.

And now the design of the Lincoln Memorial is gone and it has been replaced on the back of the penny by a union shield.

All of this while our friends north of the border are considering doing away with their penny, or should I say one cent coin.

Here's a penny for your thoughts.
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