2009-D Presidential Years, Zinc

The 2009-D Presidential Years cent in zinc composition was the Denver Mint's version of the final bicentennial design. Susan Gamble designed the reverse, sculpted by Joseph Menna, depicting the unfinished Capitol dome during Lincoln's presidency. The Denver Mint struck approximately 350.4 million cents across all four 2009 designs, releasing them throughout the year in the chronological sequence of Lincoln's life story.

Lincoln's presidency lasted only four years and 42 days, but the events compressed into that span changed the nation permanently. He preserved the Union through a civil war that killed more than 620,000 soldiers, issued the Emancipation Proclamation freeing enslaved people in Confederate territory, and secured passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to abolish slavery throughout the United States. His assassination at Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865, came just days after Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. The Presidential Years design was the last of the four 2009 bicentennial reverses to enter circulation. After December 2009, the Mint began preparing dies for the new Shield reverse that would debut in 2010 as the permanent replacement for all four bicentennial designs.