Crinkly Lincoln: Bright as a New Penny (Gone)

Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania

This 1916 statue is a replica of an earlier Lincoln that still stands in Middlesex, New Jersey. Its sculptor, Alfonso Pelzer, died soon after the Middlesex statue went up, and his Lincoln was posthumously copied and sold to more than a half-dozen cities. Several, including this one, are along the old Lincoln Highway, which didn't exist when Pelzer was alive.

Lincoln was paid for with the pennies of Wilkinsburg's schoolkids, and was once stolen -- snapped off at the ankles -- and later discovered in a shallow grave on a county farm. He was put back up, but his weakened ankles collapsed in a 1992 storm.

The statue was made of hammered, crinkly copper, and had a bright sheen thanks to a 2001 restoration. Lincoln looked like he'd been dipped in the same stuff used to bronze baby shoes. Then a car hit him in Nov. 2018, and the statue was retired permanently.