Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln

The U.S. Mint just put out a statement that said the new Penny design will be released on February 11th, 2010. That is exactly one day before the 200th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's birth. Happy Birthday Mr. Lincoln! I wonder if President Lincoln would like all the fuss about a coin honoring him. He was a simple man who probably would want to for go all the fan fare. But this really is a momentous occasion! The old penny with the Lincoln Memorial on the back is no longer going to be produced.
I wonder if any of my great, great grandchildren will search through their pocket full of coins to see if they have one of those old pennies featuring the Memorial on it like I look for the pennies with the wheat on the back. Who knows what is going to happen in the future.... coins may no longer be around, for that matter tangible money may not be around either with the technology that is being developed.
I am so amazed with the machines that are being used today. Just before Christmas, we took our kids to Sea World in San Diego, California. When we got to the gate there were two machines waiting to greet us after we spent seventy bucks for a two day pass. One scanned each person's entry ticket and another was a biometric finger scanner. It instructed us to put our index finger inside a little box which lit up with a green light and then scanned an image of our finger. Isn't this the amazing technology that was so far out there in spy movies a few years ago? There is a big debate on whether amusement parks should be able to do this because law enforcement agencies could use it. Are these parks trying to reduce their work force or are they searching for terrorists within their parks? It seems a little suspicious to me. I'm sure President Lincoln wouldn't approve. In his day if you wanted to talk to your neighbor, you walked over to talk to them, you didn't text them. When you bought groceries at a store, you walked up to the counter and the clerk knew you by name and asked you how your children were. Now you have to scan your own groceries and have a machine scold you for not placing an item in the bagging area.
You would think the cost of things would go down now that companies aren't having to pay employees to do the work. All this just makes the penny worth more in my opinion because you never know how much longer it will be around.