Why do Presidents on the Quarter Dime Nickel; face opposite of Lincoln on the Penny?

Top Selling Presidential Coin: Donald J. Trump  

There are many theories out there but following are the most popular. . At the end I select the one that makes most sense to me; but you decide:

1.  The likeness of President Lincoln on the penny is an adaption of a plaque executed by Victor David Brenner, an outstanding portraitist and sculptor. President Theodore Roosevelt was so impressed with Mr. Brenner’s design of a Lincoln plaque that he recommended to the Secretary of the Treasury that the design be placed on a coin to be issued in the Lincoln Centennial Year, 1909.

2.  The other presidents are turning their back on Lincoln because he freed the slaves.

3.   The direction that Lincoln faces on the cent was not mandated — this was simply the choice of the designer.

4.   It is because he died in office. He is shown as looking back rather than forward because we don’t know what his future would have been, or the future of the country if he had lived and served out his second term. As said in his eulogy, “Now he belongs to the ages.”

5.  Because he turned his back on his country men. He allowed this country to be divided and go to war with it’s self.

6.  He faces right because he was a Republican.

7.  He was assassinated so he faces the opposite way of the other presidents. (This obviously ignores the fact that Kennedy on the half dollar faces left)

8. Lincoln’s Best Side: Because he has a big scare on the left side of his face.

 

I chose # 8.  Read more about Lincoln’s Best side:

…Fracture of Skull and Injury of Brain in Boyhood

All of these differences in facial muscle and bone development, like the weakened functioning of the left ocular and facial muscles in particular, indicated to me that Lincoln had suffered a serious injury of his brain in childhood. The sharp depression in the forehead above the left eye with a definitely palpable edge, in the life masks, shows where his skull had been fractured, and the permanent differences in the nervous tone of the ocular and facial muscles of the two sides indicate that his brain was then permanently injured.

…Lincoln was also struck on the head with a club in a fight with Negro marauders while taking a flatboat down the Mississippi, when either 19 or 22. This blow, he said, left a permanent scar.

…The kick on the forehead over the left eye evidently fractured the skull at the point of impact and must have violently snapped the head and neck backward. The size and depth of the depression is evidence of its severity. It is most likely that a subdural hemorrhage of considerable size developed here, besides points of hemorrhage elsewhere. The left frontal lobe was certainly damaged, which, in a right-handed, right-eyed person, would have modifying after-effects on his personality, which will be considered later.

   

The second photo was sometimes mistaken for Lincoln.

For information on Lincoln’s injuries visit:  http://www.lincolnportrait.com/common_sense_fracture.asp  Note:

Other US coins with left-facing heads.

Buffalo Nickel………………Indian faces to his left.

Barber Dime……………….Liberty faces to her left.

Barber Quarter…………..Liberty faces to her left.

Barber Half Dollar………..Liberty faces to her left.

Franklin Half Dollar……….Franklin faces to his left

Susan B. Anthony Dollar…Susan B. Anthony faces to her left.

2005 Jefferson Nickel…….Jefferson faces to his left.

Note:  Jefferson’s direction changed in 2003 after  Annette Gordon-Reed published “Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy” in 1997.

Read more about: The Jefferson Scandals

 

A History of Helping Those who Refuse to Help Themselves!

John Brown's Last Prophecy

John Brown was the first white man to use violence in an attempt to end slavery. This first use of violence by a white man scared many in the South, leading the Southern state militias to begin training for their defense of further raids and, consequently, to the militarization of the South in preparation for a Northern invasion.

Brown’s commitment to justice and adherence to the United States Constitution forced him to fight state-sponsored injustice, one he was only affected by in spirit.

An African-American baggage handler on the train Brown ceased, named Hayward Shepherd, vehemently confronted the raiders; they  were forced to shoot and kill him– ironically a freed slave became the first casualty of the raid.

Robert E. Lee believed that the blacks used in the raid would never have done this on their own. “The blacks, whom he [John Brown] forced from their homes in this neighborhood, as far as I could learn, gave him no voluntary assistance.”

Israel Green said of attempting to Kill John Brown, ” The shot might have been fired by some one else in the insurgent party, but I think it was from Brown. Instinctively as Brown fell I gave him a saber thrust in the left breast. The sword I carried was a light uniform weapon, and, either not having a point or striking something hard in Brown’s accouterments, did not penetrate. The blade bent double.”

Henry David Thoreau, in A Plea for Captain John Brown, said, “I think that for once the Sharp’s rifles and the revolters were employed in a righteous cause. The tools were in the hands of one who could use them,” and said of Brown, “He has a spark of divinity in him.”

A unique man, Thoreau proclaimed in admiration, Brown was highly moral and humane. Independent, “under the auspices of John Brown and nobody else,” and direct of speech, Brown instilled fear, which he attributed to a lack of cause, into large groups of men who supported slavery. Incomparable to man, Thoreau likens Brown’s execution– he states that he regards Brown as dead before his actual death– to Christ’s crucifixion at the hands of Pontius Pilate with whom he compares the American government.

Thoreau vents at the scores of Americans who have voiced their displeasure and scorn for John Brown. The same people, Thoreau says, can’t relate to Brown because of their concrete stances and “dead” existences; they are truly not living, only a handful of men have lived. Thoreau also criticizes contemporary Christians, who say their prayers and then go to sleep aware of injustice but doing nothing to change it. Similarly, Thoreau states those who believe Brown threw his life away and died as a fool, are fools. Brown gave his life for justice, not for material gains, and was completely sane, perhaps more so than any other human being. Rebutting the arguments based on the small number of rebels, Thoreau responds “when were the good and the brave ever in a majority?”

Diane V. Boone