The Lincoln wheat penny

A brief history of the Wheat Cent

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Possibly the most popular coin of all time to collect is the Lincoln Wheat Cent, first minted in 1909.

In 1908, the U.S. Mint contracted sculptor Victor D. Brenner to design the new cent.  Roosevelt wanted the new coin to depict Abraham Lincoln, in honor of the centennial year of his birth.  It was the first widely circulating coin to feature a United States President.

The first coins minted in 1909 had Brenner’s initials “VDB” on them and are known as the 1909 VDB and 1909-S VDB cents.  The Mint ceased production of the cents with Brenner’s initials only a few days after the first coins were minted.

The numismatic community actually objected to the removal of Brenner’s initials, but the Mint removed them anyway.  They considered simply changing them to just the first initial of Brenner’s last name but Charles Barber didn’t want people to confuse it with his coinage that was circulating, as that had a B for Barber.

In 1918, shortly after Barber’s death in 1917, Brenner’s initials returned to the Lincoln Wheat Cent on the obverse of the coin, just underneath Lincoln’s shoulder.

The cent was struck in 95% copper, until 1943 when copper was needed for the war (World War II) and the penny's composition changed to zinc-coated steel for a year.  There were a few error coins the following year that were mistakenly made on the steel planchets, these are quite rare and valuable pennies!

The wheat cent reverted to its 95% copper composition, and in 1959 the wheat design was replaced by Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse design.

Brenner's design for the wheat penny was very similar to one of his previous works, a desk plaque of Abraham Lincoln for the Gorham Manufacturing Company that he made in 1907. 

The design features Abraham Lincoln facing right on the obverse, and the reverse features two stalks of durum wheat around the edge of the coin, framing the words "ONE CENT" and "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" Along the top edge we see the motto "E PLURIBUS UNUM".

A few coins of note are the 1909-S VDB and the 1909 VDB these coins minted featured Brenner's initials on the reverse, at the bottom edge of the coin.

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