Whose image is on the penny?
Answer
Abraham Lincoln
Explanation
Abraham Lincoln's image is on the obverse (front) of the U.S. penny, where it has appeared continuously since 1909. The Lincoln penny was introduced on August 2, 1909 to mark the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809, replacing the Indian Head cent that had been minted since 1859. Lincoln was the first real person to be depicted on a regularly circulating U.S. coin (earlier coins had used allegorical figures such as Liberty), a change pushed personally by President Theodore Roosevelt as part of his broader project to modernize American coinage with high-art designs.
The Lincoln portrait was designed by Lithuanian-born sculptor Victor David Brenner (1871 to 1924), who modeled it on a photograph of Lincoln taken by Mathew Brady. The portrait shows Lincoln in profile facing right, with his beard, a wing collar, and a string tie. The motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears above his head, the word LIBERTY appears to the left, and the date appears to the right.
The Lincoln cent has had four reverse designs over its history: the wheat ears (1909 to 1958), the Lincoln Memorial (1959 to 2008), four commemorative bicentennial designs (2009), and the current Union Shield (2010 to present).
Lincoln (1809 to 1865) served as the sixteenth President from March 4, 1861 until his assassination on April 14, 1865 (he died the following morning). He led the Union through the Civil War (1861 to 1865), issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 freeing enslaved people in Confederate-held territory, championed the Thirteenth Amendment that abolished slavery (ratified December 6, 1865, after Lincoln's death), delivered the Gettysburg Address on November 19, 1863, and was reelected in 1864. He is consistently ranked by historians as one of the greatest U.S. presidents.
Lincoln also appears on the obverse of the $5 bill (since 1914), on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota (one of four faces alongside George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt).
Why this matters for your test
Identifying Lincoln's image on the penny is a basic civics fact and connects applicants to the central American figure who preserved the Union and ended slavery. Lincoln's image is the most reproduced presidential portrait in American daily life, since pennies are minted by the billions.
Source: USCIS 128 Civics Questions (2025)
