# They turned their backs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 11, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446 "2002-08-11T23:34:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![im2evil4u](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5ac83/32.png) [@im2evil4u](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/im2evil4u)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/1 "2002-08-11T23:34:32Z")
I’ve always wondered why on U.S coins, Lincoln faces right while on the quarter, nickel and dime the others face left. In a movie, the title escapes me, Danny Glover’s character claimed the reason was “they turned their backs on Lincoln cause he freed the slaves”. Sounds like a logical explanation, but I have been unable to find any validity to this statement or a logical answer to this question that I have pondered for years. Maybe I should get out more. Any comments are welcome. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/2 "2002-08-11T23:46:58Z")
Seeing as Washington and Jefferson were dead before Lincoln freed the slaves, which he didn’t really, but that’s a whole nother debate. It is very unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/3 "2002-08-11T23:48:10Z")
Welcome to the Boards! I believe that the real answer is that Lincoln’s facing the way he is, has to do with the fact that he was assinated while in office. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2002, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/4 "2002-08-11T23:49:02Z")
[http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.html#q1](http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.html#q1) > [@](#): > > Why does the portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the one-cent coin face to the right, but the portraits on all other coins face to the left? > > Many people notice that the portraits on all of our other coins face to the left … except for the portrait of Abraham Lincoln on the one-cent coin. We have been unable to find any special significance to the direction in which the portrait faces. It appears that this is one of many discretionary factors left to the artist who prepared the design. But, of course, “They’re” not going to tell you that it’s _really_ because Lincoln freed the slaves… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/5 "2002-08-12T00:22:31Z")
Considering that Lincoln is the first real person to appear on a US coin, the sculptor(Victor David Brenner) could have faced him anyway he pleased. But he faced him to the right because > [@](#): > > Lincoln is facing to the right because that was the direction he was facing in the photograph Victor David Brenner used to make his bas-relief for the penny. From [http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln14.html](http://members.aol.com/RVSNorton/Lincoln14.html) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/6 "2002-08-12T00:56:31Z")
Most photographs of Lincoln are in right profile. Either he or his photographers apparently thought it his “better side”. A lot of it might have had to do with a childhood injury which affected the left side of his face (he was kicked by a horse). See “Preference for Photographs of Right Side of Face” in the following: [http://www.lincolnportrait.com/ama.htm](http://www.lincolnportrait.com/ama.htm) ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2002, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/they-turned-their-backs/123446/7 "2002-08-12T01:28:51Z")
That’s the story I heard, **yabob**. And it makes sense. Peace, mangeorge