I remember years ago when I was young and my parents would get the Sunday edition of our local newspaper. Majority of the newspaper I was uninterested in, but the cartoon / comic section was what I grabbed to read while eating my breakfast cereal. There were many classic comic strips then but my favorite was always Charles Schulz Peanuts with poor ‘ol Charlie Brown.

Charles Monroe Schultz was born on November 26th, 1922 in Minneapolis Minnesota. He loved drawing and sometimes drew their family dog Spike. Schulz’s first group of regular cartoons was a weekly series of one-panel jokes called Li’l Folks was published from June 1947 through January 1950 in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. It was in Li’l Folks that Schulz first used the name Charlie Brown for a character, although he applied the name in four gags to four different boys. The series also had a dog that looked very similar to Snoopy. In 1950 Schulz had developed a comic strip using four panels rather than one. Unfortunately the title for the strip had to be changed for legal reasons and a new name was selected, Peanuts.

Peanuts made its first appearance on October 2nd, 1950 in seven newspapers. After a slow start, Peanuts eventually became one of the most popular comic strips of all time, as well as one of the most influential. At its height, Peanuts was published daily in 2,600 papers in 75 countries, and in 21 languages. For nearly 50 years, Schultz drew 17,897 published Peanuts strips.

Peanuts also proved popular in other media, such as Television with the first animated special A Charlie Brown Christmas aired in December 1965 and also won an Emmy award. Numerous TV specials followed including classics like By My Valentine Charlie Brown, and my personal favorite It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown.

On December 14th, 1999 Schulz announced his retirement due to his failing health and passed away on February 12, 2000 at the age of 77. To this day Schulz classic Peanuts cartoons continue to appear in Daily newspapers across the county, and poor Charlie Brown still hasn’t been able to kick that darn football.

This special collection of Pressed Coins was created by our friends over at The Penny Depot. We have reviewed a few of their other designs in the past and they just keep coming up with new and certainly unique design topics. These were originally released back in 2022 to celebrate 100 Years of Charles Schulz (born in 1922). Be sure to head on over to their site to check out these create pressed pennies and all their other available designs. Keep on Pressing!

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