I’d like to send out a big ‘Hey, Happy Birthday’ wish to my friend, Abraham Lincoln. Abe, as I like to call him, is probably best known for the penny. The first penny with his picture on it was issued in 1909 and it is the longest used design in American coins. The penny design was changed in 1959, 150 years after Lincoln was born, to include the Lincoln Memorial and Statue on the back, making it the first coin to have a person embossed on both sides of the coin.
The Lincoln penny was introduced 100 years after Abe was born, making this his 203rd birthday. Abe only lived to be, in his terms, two score and sixteen years — he was assassinated when he was 56.
Abe was noted for doing a lot of things, and he did a lot of things he didn’t get much credit for. He created a national banking system with the National Banking Act in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency. He was the first president to be assassinated. His birth mother died from milk sickness. He was the first president to have a beard.
Abe is remembered for some famous quotes from speeches such as the Gettysburg Address and almost everyone has heard “you can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all of the time,” but he came up with a lot one-liners, or zingers — one of the main reasons I liked him. For instance, Abe is known for the following observations…
• If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one?
• Whatever you are, be a good one.
• Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.
• When you’ve got an elephant by the hind leg, and he is trying to run away, it’s best to let him run.
I’m thinking the country could use another Abe right about now… Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln!!!
—30—