What is the first US coin to have the same person on both sides of the coin?
Lincoln Memorial (photo by by chadh CC-BY)
Between 1959 and 2008, the Abraham Lincoln penny. This answer is a little cheeky as the obverse has his portrait while the reverse shows the Lincoln Memorial with the Lincoln Statue. The engraving is by Frank Gasparro, who was at the time, the Assistant, and later Chief Engraver of the United States Mint. See the images on the US Mint: Obverse Reverse
The original Lincoln one cent was first minted in 1909, 100 years after his birth. This overturned 115 years of tradition that the image of a President would not appear on a circulating coin. The portrait is taken from the bust of Abraham Lincoln, designed by Victor D. Brenner.
During 2009 the US Mint are issuing four new one cent reverse designs based on Lincoln’s life: birth and early childhood in Kentucky; formative years in Indiana; professional life in Illinois; and, Presidency in Washington, DC.
The two middle coins will also show Lincoln on both sides of the coin.
Finally, in 2010 the Mint will issue another one cent coin which will be “emblematic of President Lincoln’s preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country.”
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I see that the writing on the reverse has a small “o” (in “oF”). I wonder if there’s anything interesting behind this odd typography.
According to the FINAL REPORT OF THE LINCOLN SESQUICENTENNIAL COMMISSION 1959-1960, the “artist Gasparro … said that the small “o” was not done in error but rather had been done deliberately to give design appeal to the lettering on the penny. Citing precedents for the lowercase letter, such as the Franklin Half Dollar, the Liberty Walking Half Dollar, the Peace Dollar, and several commemoratives, he said, “I did it to break up the pattern.”