<P> The Presidential $1 Coin Act required that the cent, beginning in 2010, "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country". On April 16, 2009, the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) met and recommended a design that showed 13 wheat sheaves bound together with a ring symbolizing American unity as one nation . Subsequently, this design was withdrawn because it was similar to coins issued in Germany in the 1920s . The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) also met and recommended a design showing a Union shield with ONE CENT superimposed in a scroll; E pluribus unum was also depicted in the upper portion of the shield . </P> <P> In June 2009 the CFA met again and this time selected a design featuring a modern rendition of the American flag . As a part of the release ceremony for the last of the 2009 cents on November 12, 2009, the design for the 2010 cent was announced . The design chosen was the Union shield, that was selected by the CCAC . According to the Mint, the 13 stripes on the shield "represent the states joined in one compact union to support the Federal government, represented by the horizontal bar above ." The new reverse was designed by artist Lyndall Bass and sculpted by US Mint sculptor - engraver Joseph Menna . In January 2010, the coins were released early in Puerto Rico; this was prompted by a shortage of cents on the island . The Mint re-engraved the obverse, returning to the original 1909 galvano in preparing new dies . However, the Mint did not return to striking the pieces in the higher relief of 1909--the piece has long been struck in a much lower relief than the original pieces . Coins of the new design were officially released at a ceremony at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois, on February 11, 2010 . </P> <P> In early January 2017, cents bearing the current date and with the mint mark P appeared in circulation . The Mint had made no announcement of such coins, but confirmed their authenticity, stating that the coins had the mint mark to honor the Mint's 225th anniversary . All 2017 cents struck at Philadelphia are to receive the mint mark, but cents struck in 2018 and after will again omit it . </P>

What is the significance of a wheat penny