The desire and rush to the get the latest 2009 Lincoln Penny depicting Lincoln’s formative years in Indiana (the "Rail Splitter" cent) was exceptional.
The cent launched Thursday in the Lincoln State Park at the Lincoln Amphitheatre to a crowd of around 3,000 people who were more than willing to spend a major portion of their day waiting in shoddy weather to pay $3 for six-rolls of the latest pennies. Of course, they also were a part of a once in a lifetime experience.
In the meantime, those who were unable to make it to Indiana spent up to an hour waiting through the US Mint’s online store to enter their order for up to five of the two-roll sets for $8.95 each. The demand was exceedingly strong, and the online store was backed up — just like the lines in Indiana.
As collectors know only too well, 96,000 sets of the first Log Cabin penny unexpectedly sold out within two weeks. Those who missed out were not going to let that happen again, especially after discovering how much they sold for in the secondary market.
So how was the Lincoln cent launch ceremony and how many people were really there? There is nothing like a video to set the perspective. For that, watch the above embedded 14WFIE.com local news video covering portions of US Mint Directors Moy’s speech, the pennies, the crowd and more.
For more information (to includes images) on all four cents for this year, visit the CoinNews sister site 2009 Lincoln Pennies.
