Take a penny, leave a penny.
That’s the message from Washington as the last one cent coin was minted on Thursday, November 13.
The bronze disc, forever famous in featuring the profile image of President Abraham Lincoln on one side, will cease to be made and circulated as a form of American currency. President Donald Trump, along with members of Congress, ruled the minting of pennies as wasteful spending. The coin was disparaged as worthless specie by a host of economists over the years. The White House gave the final order to eliminate the penny—once, and for all—as minted coin. The end of era, indeed.
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An Italian Legacy
Frank Gasparro (1909–2001), the son of Neapolitan immigrants, rose from a South Philadelphia row house to become one of the most influential artists in the history of the U.S. Mint.
Gifted in drawing from an early age, Gasparro trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and worked under Giuseppe Donato, one of the best sculptors of his day.
Gasparro’s talent earned him a position at the U.S. Mint in 1942. He was employed there for nearly four decades. He left an unmistakable imprint on American coinage.
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Lincoln Memorial Etching
Gasparro became chief engraver of the U.S. Mint in 1965. Years prior, his design of the reversed side of the penny was chosen in the Mint’s effort to update the one cent piece.
In 1958, Gasparro came up with a host of sketches he hoped could complete one side of the penny. His best was the Lincoln Memorial, one of the great landmarks in Washington, that Gasparro admitted to have never visited. His etching was based on photographs of the memorial he saw in magazines. The Mint decided in favor of Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial as the new image on the flip side of Lincoln’s portrait. These two images were to be engraved on the penny from 1959 to 2009. Every penny in circulation carried Gasparro’s signature design for some 50 years. His work reflected a devotion to classical proportion, crisp architectural detail, and a medallist’s sense of relief and depth.
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Penny Changes
In 2009, the penny changed. The president’s portrait remained on one side but Gasparo’s conception— the memorial, on the other side—was to be replaced. Lincoln’s 200th birthday was cause enough for the Mint to engrave different images for limited circulation. Aspects of Lincoln’s legendary life were featured on the reverse side of the penny that year. Images displayed were a log cabin as Lincoln’s birthplace, young Lincoln sitting on a log reading, Lincoln as a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, and the unfinished Capitol building of Lincoln’s inauguration.
In 2010, the U.S. Mint commissioned the Union shield to permanently replace the memorial. That image appeared on one side of all pennies until the last one was minted on Thursday, November 13, 2025.
Gasparro Legacy
Beyond the penny, Gasparro designed the Eisenhower dollar reverse, the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and numerous medals, government seals, and commemorative pieces. He was revered by colleagues for his precision, his work ethic, and his belief that coins were miniature sculptures—public art that lived in the hands of the American people.
Frank Gasparro’s legacy is singular: no other Italian American artist has appeared on more U.S. currency.
Editor’s Note: Frank Gasparro is pictured etching the reverse side of the silver dollar. Other photographs show what Gasparro had conceived, i.e., a log cabin and wheat stalk, before his rendition of the Lincoln Memorial was chosen by U.S. Mint officials. Gasparro admitted that he never visited the Lincoln Memorial. His etching was based on photographs in magazines. In 1985, he was honored with his likeness engraved on a coin.
The last penny was minted yesterday in Philadelphia. The Secretary of the Treasury Brandon Beach was there to strike the final one-cent coin. Inflation doomed production. The cost to make each penny rose to 3.5 cents per coin over the past decade. Although the penny will no longer be produced, the U.S. Mint reports that the 232-year-old coin will still be deemed as legal tender. Currently, there over 3 billion pennies in circulation.
The web site for the U.S. Mint is https://www.usmint.gov.
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