Place: Taco John's
Lunch: Six tacos (it IS Taco Tuesday, after all), Dr Pepper
Frowning Counter Girl gives me my change, which is exactly three pennies, and something about them catches my eye as being terribly odd.
So while crunching down tacos, I check them out.
The front looks normal. The back has some guy who looks like Kramer from Seinfeld sitting on a log doing something.
Not sure what.
Weird.
So I Googled. Maybe I should Bing. You've heard about Bing...Microsoft's new search engine, right? They're spending tons of money advertising it. Haven't tried it.
Turns out it's the bicentennial of Lincoln's birth. And the centennial of the debut of the Lincoln penny. Don't feel bad...I didn't get him anything either.
Anyway, "Kramer on a Log" is apparently supposed to be Lincoln on a log. You had Lincoln Logs as a kid, right? Whole different thing. Oh...that something he's doing is reading. Probably Harry Potter. Reading books from the future would explain a great deal about Lincoln's brilliance.
They have four designs, one which is nothing but a log house. Again, not intended to be a tribute to Lincoln Logs, although it could easily be replicated with them. The log house is supposed to be Lincoln's birthplace.
"Kramer on a log" represents Lincoln's "formative years in Indiana Reserve".
Then there's one in front of an obvious government building which represents his "professional life in Illinois".
Finally, there's the "Presidency in Washington DC", which features the not-quite-finished US Capitol building. Lincoln's nowhere to be seen. He's probably hiding with Waldo.
The US Mint website has a nice summary of what each coin represents.
I'm sure they'll be part of the annual collection this year.
