The "O" on the Lincoln cent

WACoinGuy

Does anyone know why the "O" on the reverse of the Lincoln cent in a smaller font the the rest of "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA"? I've always wondered if there's a reason they did that...

Cratylus

Your "O" is smaller??? Oh my gosh! You have a rare die variety!

WACoinGuy

Maybe I should put it up on E-Bay with a starting bid of $100.

XpipedreamR

I always assumed it was simply a stylistic shoice...it just looks so darn good

Cratylus

<< <i>Maybe I should put it up on E-Bay with a starting bid of $100. >>



I think Blue Moon Coins may have beat you to it.

Cameonut

At first I thought it was pure grammar. It is more correct not to capitalize 'of'. But that doesn't explain why the F is capitalized. So I would agree with Xpipedream that it was done for stylistic reasons - a lower case f wouldn't look right.

richbeat

I would have to pretty much agree that it's stylistic. If you look at a bicentennial quarter, you'll see that "OF" is in small case letters while the rest of "US of A" is capital letters. Also, check out the "OF" on a Franklin half. Same as the memorial cent. Same thing with the Walkers.

WACoinGuy

<< <i>I would have to pretty much agree that it's stylistic. If you look at a bicentennial quarter, you'll see that "OF" is in small case letters while the rest of "US of A" is capital letters. Also, check out the "OF" on a Franklin half. Same as the memorial cent. Same thing with the Walkers. >>



Hmm ... never noticed that before. Not quite as noticable on the Walkers, and on the Franklin, the O is lined up with the top of the F, as opposed to the cent where it's lined up with the bottom. Very weird that I hadn't noticed it on those other coins.