The Field Notes Spring 2026 quarterly, "Lucky", is their 70th, and serves as a farewell to the fortuitous penny.
First minted in 1793, the copper one-cent piece graced jean pockets, change jars, coin purses, car floors, cash registers, and the bottoms of wells and fountains with its distinct auburn sheen for over two hundred years. Peep the below for a charming step back in time in the modern era.
The U.S. Treasury stopped minting pennies last November, but 114 billion pennies remain in circulation. They’re not going away immediately.
"Lucky" honors the coin’s legacy by mimicking copper’s enduring shades of wear: the orangeish-pink “Rosewood,” the well-worn, dirty “Mocha,” and the oxidized green patina of “Mint” Mohawk Mosaic 100-lb cover stocks. Each cover is stamped with metallic copper foil and embossed on the back with the penny’s three distinct obverse designs: stalks of wheat, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Great Seal. The flip-side of each pack’s backing card contains a heartfelt ode to the cent, with a space to enshrine your luckiest penny, whether it’s a shiny example of 2025’s last batch, or one you found, face-up, on the sidewalk decades ago.
Copper staples bind 48 pages of 60#T Domtar Cougar Natural inside, ruled in copper with faint mint ledger columns; use those vertical columns to add up your change, to mark off a checklist, or simply ignore them for regular ruled writing.
