Once the most widely distributed large land mammal in the Western Hemisphere, Eastern Cougars have been forcefully eliminated from two-thirds of their original range by active hunting and poisoning campaigns. These cats historically made home in a wide variety of habitats from coastal marsh to mountain forests from Michigan, southern Ontario, eastern Canada and Maine, south to South Carolina and west across Tennessee.
"The Eastern Cougar was actually named functionally extinct, and therefore taken off the endangered species list by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, in the process of designing this penny - just after I sent my designs in, actually. See an article from The Guardian with details, here. The Eastern Cougar's relatives, the Florida panther and jaguar, are still surviving in the southern regions of North America, although they are also endangered."
- Mary Tremonte
One in a series of nine, this original elongated penny was designed by Mary Tremonte, and made on a machine created by Stuart O. Anderson and Justseeds member Shaun Slifer. While currently producing small runs of single-sided penny editions, the completed machine will produce double-sided pennies matching extinct and critically endangered animals with urban wildlife. Read more about the project...
Please note: while these pennies were all cleaned prior to rolling, each will bear individual variations as a result of their former existence as circulated currency, showing various patinas and markings per penny.
