AN UNEXPECTED ORIGINAL

The silver penny.

In 1943, the U.S. Mint made pennies from zinc-coated steel to conserve copper for World War II. Lincoln remained on the front; two wheat ears framed the denomination on the reverse. An ordinary object, made extraordinary by a change in material.

Our rotating penny uses photographs of an actual 1943 cent, mapped onto a three-dimensional coin with simulated metallic lighting. The surface shading is an interpretation of the photographs, rather than a measured 3D scan.

Coin photography: Jaclyn Nash, National Numismatic Collection, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution. Public domain.

View the original photograph ↗
Read the history at the U.S. Mint ↗