 With the redesign of the four gold denominations completed by 1908 , Roosevelt turned his attention to the cent . The centennial of the birth of assassinated president Abraham Lincoln would occur in February 1909 , and large numbers of privately manufactured souvenirs were already being issued . Many citizens had written to the Treasury Department , proposing a Lincoln coin , and Roosevelt was interested in honoring his fellow Republican . This was a break with previous American numismatic tradition ; before the Lincoln cent , no regularly circulating U.S. coin had featured an actual person ( as opposed to idealized personifications , as of " liberty " ) . Many writers had suggested a Lincoln half dollar , but that coin 's design had been changed in 1892 and could not yet be altered without congressional approval . By then a lame duck in office , Roosevelt was reluctant to involve Congress . 
