I have to admit I sometimes can't stop staring at my 1907 Lincoln VDB Penny. Its not Lincoln's stoic eyes, it is the fact that I can barely see the "VDB" on the coin. It was one of my first coins that I actually paid money for (instead of rummaging through piles and piles of coins) as I needed to own this piece of history. I read the story before I got the coin so in my mind the coin was 100 pounds, made of pure gold with the "VBD" in flashing lights. It is not that I don't like the coin, I am glad I got it. I mean, I only paid $7 for my circulated VDB so great value and to hold a piece of history is priceless. There's almost 30 million coins minted with the "VDB" before the mint took it off so it's not rare my any means. I am not really sure what the big deal was, you can barely see the initials on the bottom of the obverse (it's not stamped on Lincoln's forehead). For those that don't know, the "VDB" is the initials of Victor David Brenner who was the designer of the Lincoln cent. He added it to the bottom of the obverse side of the coin.
Maybe I should invest in a graded VDB or try to get a San Fransisco VDB since there were less than 500,000 of these minted?
But maybe I should really be looking at the history of why the Lincoln Cent is a timepiece. The Lincoln Cent was the very first US coin in which the portrait was a real person. All other portraits before Lincoln were fictitious characters. Lincoln himself was arguably the most important person in US History. The Lincoln Cent is still being minted today, over 100 years later. It even costs the US Mint more than one cent to produce the penny ... and they still keep minting pennies in record numbers (in the billions per year). Many countries have stopped producing their version of the penny for this reason. But it's plain and simple, Americans love their penny and they love Lincoln.
So I should be admiring the 1907 VDB's because they were the very first Lincoln Pennies ever minted and not because the engraver added his initials.
What are your thoughts on the "VDB". Did the engraver deface the coin and try to steal some of Lincoln's thunder or it is just another interesting numismatic story in US coin history?
Cheers
It was customary, at that time, that the designer added his innitials to the medals he designed. When Brenner added his to the coin there was an uproar and the Mint was forced to stop the production to remove the initials.
I didn't know that about the medals ... thanks for that info. It helps understand a bit more why he did it.
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