Abraham Lincoln, America’s greatest president ever in my book for his leadership in abolishing slavery and winning the Civil War, would have been 200 today.

Americans will have plenty of opportunities to think about Lincoln this year and in the future as they sift through their change because the U.S. Mint today released the first of four redesigns of the cent design initiated in memory of Lincoln 100 years ago.

The Lincoln penny is the oldest coin design in U.S. history; it has been changed significantly only once, in 1959 when the reverse design was changed from wheat stalks to the image of the Lincoln Memorial. The new reverse designs will feature representations of the various stages of Lincoln’s life — the log cabin of his childhood, his youth in Indiana, his professional career in Illinois and his presidency in Washington. Here are the designs:

This momentous change in coinage, something that soon will be apparent to everyone who still buys goods with hard currency instead of credit cards, presents a great opportunity for parents to teach their children about the impact that Abraham Lincoln had in U.S. history. We’ll definitely be having some Lincoln lessons in the Glover Home School.