VDB (Victor David Brenner)

How to read it

Brenner’s portrait of Lincoln has been on the cent since 1909, and the Mint says it is still used today. The first cents, released on August 2, 1909, carried his initials at the bottom of the reverse, under the tips of the two wheat stalks (PCGS). CoinWeek says the Treasury received questions about the initials at once, and three days later Treasury Secretary Franklin MacVeigh stopped production and ordered them removed. PCGS says some people saw the letters as an advertisement for the artist; NGC says some found them too ostentatious. Cents from 1910 to 1917 have no initials at all. In 1918 the initials came back, much smaller, on the bottom edge of Lincoln’s shoulder on the obverse, where NGC and PCGS say they remain on the latest cents.

Also searched as: 1909 VDB, VDB on penny, VDB penny.

1909 cents with and without VDB

There are four kinds of 1909 Lincoln cent: with or without VDB, and from Philadelphia (no mint mark) or San Francisco (S) (NGC). San Francisco struck 484,000 of the VDB cents, the lowest mintage of any circulation Lincoln cent (CoinWeek): the 1909-S VDB penny. The VDB is on the reverse of the wheat cent only in 1909. NGC calls the 1909-S VDB the most commonly altered and counterfeited collectible coin in the world: an S added to a Philadelphia VDB cent, or VDB added to a plain 1909-S.

VDB on later cents

Since 1918 the letters are tiny. PCGS says the spot under the shoulder wears quickly, so on circulated cents the initials can be all but invisible. The cent’s later reverses carry their own designers’ initials, such as Frank Gasparro’s FG beside the Lincoln Memorial from 1959 to 2008.