Necco Sweethearts are today's best-selling Valentine's Day candy. Chocolate Sweethearts Conversation Hearts -- the pastel sugar hearts with the quirky sayings, were as much a part of your childhood as they are for today's kids.

NECCO manufactures over 8 billion hearts each year to keep up with demand for this American icon.

Still it's hard to believe that the concept behind today's Conversation Hearts got its start when Abraham Lincoln was still President. Mottoes seemed to have come into prominence with "cockles", a small crisp candy made of sugar and flour formed in the shape of a cockle or scallop shell. The early cockles contained mottoes, which were printed on thin colored paper and rolled up inside.