2009-D Birthplace/Frontier, Copper

The 2009-D Birthplace/Frontier copper cent was struck at the Denver Mint in the special 95% copper composition reserved for collector sets. The reverse design by Richard Masters, sculpted by Jim Licaretz, shows a small log cabin in the Kentucky wilderness where Abraham Lincoln was born on February 12, 1809. The Denver Mint facility, located at 320 West Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, has produced coins bearing the "D" mintmark since 1906. The mintmark appears on the obverse of the coin below the date, a placement that has been standard on Lincoln cents since the denomination's introduction in 1909.

Denver produced satin finish copper versions of all four bicentennial designs for inclusion in the 2009 Mint Set. The copper composition weighs 3.1 grams, noticeably heavier than the 2.5-gram zinc version. Experienced collectors sometimes use this weight difference as a quick way to distinguish between the two compositions without examining the coins closely. The combined Denver Mint production of copper bicentennial cents totaled approximately 2.99 million pieces across all four designs. Lincoln's birthplace cabin no longer stands at its original site, but a memorial building in Hodgenville, Kentucky, now encloses a symbolic cabin constructed from logs believed to have come from the original structure.