The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee met on September 25 to discuss the proposed reverse designs for the 2009 Lincoln cents. Enacted into law as part of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-145 [GPO: Text, PDF]), the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial 1-Cent Coin Redesign calls for four reverse designs to honor his birth and early childhood in Kentucky, his formative years in Indiana, his professional life in Illinois, and his presidency in Washington, DC.

According to reports, the CCAC decided on two reverse designs for each category. These recommendations will be sent to the Commission of Fine Arts for their decision. Remember, the selection by the CCAC is their consensus recommendations. The CFA can, and has, overruled the CCAC and has recommended redesigns of the recommendations. It is this bureaucracy that has produced the unfocused three-element reverse of the Florida quarter and the hanging astronaut on the Ohio quarter.

In the image to the right, the bottom two drawings were recommended for the design representing Lincoln’s birth and early childhood. The drawing on the upper-left is one of the recommendations for the design representing Lincoln’s formative years. The upper-right drawing is one of the recommended designs representing his professional life in Illinois. Without seeing the other designs, I am not sure what to think about them.

Although the CCAC is a government committee, obtaining the designs for public examination are difficult, if not elusive. Images are not published on the CCAC or CFA websites. The CCAC does make some of the images available to the media who chooses not to publish them. The image published here is from the Associated Press as published in the Journal Gazette of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I appreciate their publication of of this image. I will be sending a note to the CCAC requesting these images. Stay tuned!