1909 Lincoln Cents 1909-1958 VF25BN

History

The Lincoln cent was authorized to mark the centennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth on February 12, 1809, after Theodore Roosevelt saw a Lincoln plaque by sculptor Victor David Brenner in New York. It replaced the Indian Head cent and was the first circulating United States coin to carry the portrait of an actual identifiable person. Public release came on August 2, 1909, and crowds formed at the Treasury Building in Washington and at the Philadelphia Mint. Within days the prominent V.D.B. initials at the base of the reverse drew objections from Treasury officials and the press as free advertising for the designer, and a New York Times story of August 5 quoted Secretary MacVeagh saying new dies would carry only a small B, that issued coins would not be recalled, and that striking would pause. Production halted on August 6 for the die change, and the initials did not return until 1918, when they were placed on the truncation of Lincoln's shoulder.

Details

Victor David Brenner designed both sides. The coin was struck in bronze of 95 percent copper with 2.5 percent tin and 2.5 percent zinc, weighing 3.11 grams on a 19.05 mm planchet with a plain edge. San Francisco struck 484,000 before the initials were removed, the lowest mintage of any regular issue in the series and roughly one quarter of the 1909-S cents without VDB that followed. BN is a color designation rather than a variety, applied to copper that retains little original mint red, and Red examples of the same numeric grade sell for multiples of Brown.

Features

The obverse carries a right-facing Lincoln bust adapted from Brenner's plaque, with LIBERTY, the date, IN GOD WE TRUST, and the S mint mark below the date. The reverse places ONE CENT and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA between two wheat heads, with E PLURIBUS UNUM above and V.D.B. at 6 o'clock. Four obverse dies were used, each with a different mint mark position, the mark moving down and to the right from the first die to the fourth; on the first die the top of the S stands above both loops of the 9s in the date, while on the second and third it sits flush with their bottoms. Genuine initials show a slight slant to the central crossbar of the B, and altered coins typically show a level crossbar and a malformed lower half of the D.

Notable facts

• NGC calls the 1909-S VDB the most commonly altered and counterfeited collectible coin in the world, since adding an S to a Philadelphia 1909 VDB creates hundreds or thousands of dollars in value.
• A single S punch served all San Francisco Lincoln cents from 1909 through 1916, and genuine strikes often show a small raised dot inside the upper curve of the letter, though the notch is not always strongly impressed.
• Garrett and Guth rank the issue number 14 in 100 Greatest U.S. Coins.
• A PCGS MS67 Red example from the Tom Mershon number 2 All-Time Registry Collection brought $92,000 at auction on May 4, 2005.
• Immediate hoarding driven by the initials controversy preserved an unusually high share of the 484,000 struck, and examples turn up with regularity at major coin shows despite the small mintage.
• Both directions of alteration are known, an added S on a Philadelphia 1909 VDB and added initials on a genuine 1909-S cent.