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Lincoln Memorial Cent - First Day of Issue - 01/27/1959
GoldenEgg
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I thought this was a cool piece worth sharing. I had not known that any existed before acquiring it.
It is an envelope, with a cent sealed within, commemorating the first day of issue of the Lincoln Memorial cent.
Does anyone have another or own similar items?
8
Comments
Gov't pre GSA slabbing.
bob
Cool!
@GoldenEgg
That’s pretty cool! Wonder if the Senator wrote on the envelop or his assistant.
Small snippet of Hugh Scott’s bio from the Senate Archives.
“Elected to the Senate in 1958, Scott served three terms before retiring in 1977, and was leader for eight years. According to William F. Hildenbrand, Scott’s long-time assistant in the Senate and later secretary of the Senate, the senator “was a consummate politician.””
https://www.cop.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/artifact/Painting_32_00065.htm
It is his signature and they are worth $100 by themselves....envelope might be worth a lot more than the cent.
bob
The signature is his printed free frank, not worth much if anything.
I have a couple letters signed by him, cost off Ebay was $10 or $15. Sen. Scott had some peripheral role in the Watergate investigation.
I believe he was a senator from Pennsylvania so there is the connection to the mint. Looks like a secretary's handwriting, presumably from someone who was there for a first strike ceremony.
Neat item, any research to put Sen. Scott at a ceremony or other first day event might provide some provenance.
VERY high on the cool scale to me. I had done some research for my website on FDOI pieces. The earliest I was able to find was for the Kennedy Half Dollar. This obviously precedes that by 5 years.
Here's a link to my page on this. Scroll all of the way to the bottom of the page.
smalldollars.com/dollar/page09.html
It seems that FDOI envelopes were done in very limited amounts and by various sources...more as sales hype or political gifts....No formal program that I have seen....Imagine the flood of such items coming from the State Quarter program or subsequent issues....Cheers, RickO
Very cool item - I bet that cent is toned in an interesting way, but it would be a shame to open it
Whatever you are, be a good one. ---- Abraham Lincoln
Imagine if PCGS would able to slabb this cent & its accompany envelope with a FDOI pedigree.
That would authenticated and preserved this cool numismatic item.
@Sweetpie I think that is a good idea.
@GoldenEgg All it would take is a phone call to CS or... maybe @CSMgr can respond here or to you.
Thanks everyone! Your comments and additional historical information are appreciated! Wish there were other similar items commemorating the same coin.
@sweetpie @Hemispherical
While I am confident in its originality, I'm not sure that PCGS would be. I will definitely be getting a hard plastic holder for it!
Interesting piece of history. Thanks for sharing.
The real test is --- can anyone get the coin out to check without removing it from the envelope or otherwise damaging anything?
Maybe it's a "SMS Lincoln cent" from 1959...?
Wow! I've never seen anything like that before.
One regret I have is that I passed on a 1950 Proof set that was given to a cabinet member in the Truman administration. it was in a gray cloth box with the cabinet member's name on it. I forget who it was because it was one of the minor ones, like Agricuture.
I passed because the Proof coins were messed up. There was plastic in the case and it had melted on them. Still the coins were secondary, and I should have picked up on that.
It would be surprising to open the envelope and find a 1959 cent with wheat stalks on the reverse.