Honoring Lincoln Without the Penny

 

This statue of Abraham Lincoln stands at the entrance to the former Cleveland Board of Education building.  Lincoln has been on the penny since 1909, and I reflect on how to remember Lincoln in a post-penny era.

I Visited Downtown Cleveland’s Statue of Lincoln and Reflected on Juneteenth

By Anna Krejci

In 1932, the Cleveland community formally revealed a statue of the late U.S. President Abraham Lincoln at the entrance to the Cleveland Board of Education building downtown.  Children attending school in Greater Cleveland raised money for the statue in coins – namely pennies and nickels  – to bring the sculpture into being.  According to Cleveland Historical, Max Kalish was the artist.  Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” is engraved on the statue’s foundation.    It makes a statement that children, who usually have little ability to pay, valued the memory of Lincoln so much that they collected money little by little to have the statue sculpted.  Those of us seen as having little money, or emerging skills and talents, like school children generally have, can accomplish quite a lot, especially when working together.

I saw the statue in person last year while I was on a walking tour of downtown. The former Cleveland Board of Education building is a hotel now.  I thought about Lincoln’s statue again this year when I learned from a Newsweek article that the U.S. Treasury Department will stop making pennies as soon as their current supplies run out, projected to be at the beginning of 2026.  The magazine also reported that since 1909, former U.S. President Abraham Lincoln’s profile has been on the penny.

I acknowledge I do not pay much with pennies anymore.  I think this change could be a welcome thing.  It is supposed to save the government money on the production of pennies, and when I travel, I will carry fewer coins; that would make my load feel lighter.

One thing I will miss, though, is the way Americans remember Abraham Lincoln as seen on the penny.  Lincoln faced challenges when growing up. An article on Biography.com explains his childhood.  His mother died when he was nine, and he worked hard as a child.  He received little formal education and that which he did receive came in short stints.  He did physical labor in the beginning of adulthood.  Yet he later succeeded as a lawyer and U.S. president.  He signed The Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 that freed African Americans from slavery and led the country through the Civil War.

As pennies will be slowly going out of use, communities have begun celebrating Juneteenth, one of the newer federal holidays that marks the day in June 1865, when the last slaves in Galveston, Texas were freed.  They were finally freed years after Lincoln signed The Emancipation Proclamation.

I find it significant – given my own general knowledge of history - that those former slaves would have legal standing as individuals with rights, including the right to participate fully in the United States economy.  The national currency would represent their labor, too, and would be under the control of the people who labored for it.

I plan to keep at least one penny as a memento.  Thankfully, Lincoln’s profile will still be on the $5 bill.  It is very appropriate to have a national holiday like Juneteenth celebrating the independence of slaves in the United States.  In an ideal world, Americans would have waited to celebrate their independence until all Americans were free.  Acknowledging the difference between the Fourth of July and Juneteenth, which is celebrated on June 19, is important.  Groups of people in the United States gained rights at different times.  In an ideal world, slavery never would have existed, but I do celebrate the diversity of our country today.  Every day, regardless of whether it is the Fourth of July or Juneteenth, I expect Ohio and the United States to protect the rights and independence of all the diverse individuals who live and visit in the state and country.

Works Cited

Biography.com Editors and Tyler Piccotti. “Abraham Lincoln,” Biography.com, 13 July, 2023, https://www.biography.com/political-figures/abraham-lincoln .

CSU Center for Public History and Digital Humanities. “Abraham Lincoln in Cleveland: Remembering a Slain President.” Cleveland Historical, 9 Jan, 2024, https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/70 .

Shoaib, Alia. “The Penny Will Be Phased Out by 2026 – Here’s What It Means for Americans.” Newsweek, 23 May, 2025, https://www.newsweek.com/penny-phased-out-what-it-means-2076422 .