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CoinWeek Streaming News: The 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent and How it Changed the Hobby
Sep 25, 2020
Charles Morgan knows a thing or two about the 1909-S VDB cent and brings you this streaming masterclass on how a lowly cent changed the coin collecting hobby forever. CoinWeek Streaming News is brought to you by NGC. For information about NGC’s current grading specials and services, as well as to look up certs, pricing information, and current populations, visit www.ngccoin.com.
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[Music]
0:19
coin that i think changed the landscape
0:21
for numismatics
0:23
in america forever and that coin
0:26
is the 1909 s
0:30
vdb sent
0:33
so the 1909 svdb cent was released
0:38
in the end of 1909 but to
0:41
understand its importance we have to go
0:45
uh beyond uh simply beyond
0:48
the uh the issue itself and what we
0:50
think we know about it
0:52
to the hobby as it was
0:55
uh set up at the
0:58
end of the 19th century in 1893
1:04
augustus goodyear heaton a coin
1:06
collector
1:07
uh published a monograph on collecting
1:10
united states coins by
1:12
mint mark at this time
1:15
the united states minute produced coins
1:17
for circulation from its main branch in
1:19
philadelphia since 1793
1:24
and for a time
1:27
coins were also produced at the
1:30
branchments in the south in charlotte
1:32
and dahlonega
1:34
and there were ongoing operations at
1:36
branches in new orleans
1:38
carson city and san francisco
1:42
but the coinage of philadelphia board no
1:45
mint mark
1:47
but when the philadelphia mints
1:49
engraving department sent
1:51
dies to the branchments they hand
1:54
punched
1:54
letters on the dies to denote
1:58
which branch struck the coins
2:01
heaton took particular interest in this
2:04
fact
2:05
and made a powerful case that collectors
2:08
should focus attention
2:10
on collecting us coins not by type or
2:13
date
2:14
but by mint as well
2:18
and so in his monograph he laid out a
2:21
very rudimentary
2:23
understanding of what was available what
2:25
was struck
2:27
using the resources he had on hand
2:30
now let's talk about the coin collecting
2:33
hobby
2:34
in america in the 19th century
2:40
by today's standards the coin collecting
2:42
hobby at the time was minuscule
2:45
it really began to take root at the
2:47
close of the 1850s
2:48
with the transition from the large scent
2:51
and the half cent to the small scent
2:55
and this uh hobby grew in size
3:00
by the end of the century to the point
3:01
where the mint was creating
3:03
proof sets uh and and selling them with
3:06
distribution numbers in the high
3:08
hundreds in the low thousands
3:10
uh but by today again by today's
3:12
standards these were minuscule numbers
3:16
the technology at the time imposed very
3:18
real limits on collectors if they wanted
3:20
to
3:21
put together branchment coins and
3:24
complete sets
3:25
uh bringing in coins from the four
3:27
corners of the country
3:29
it's just very difficult as you can
3:31
understand transportation
3:34
uh was it was a major issue you also had
3:37
the fact that collectors couldn't
3:39
necessarily communicate in real time
3:40
with one another
3:42
and so all of this played a big role in
3:46
collector's abilities to complete sets
3:50
when the 1909 svdb scent is struck
3:55
the size of the coin collecting hobby is
3:57
still small
3:59
but for some reason that i'll lay out
4:01
here in our program tonight
4:03
the release of this coin in subsequent
4:06
way the coin collecting hobby
4:08
dealt with mint mark coins changed the
4:11
hobby landscape forever
4:13
and i actually would make the argument
4:15
that the reason we're talking tonight
4:17
the reason you collect coins
4:18
and maybe got into the hobby in the
4:20
first place had something to do
4:22
with this development the allure
4:25
and lore of the 1909 svdb sent
4:28
and other lincoln cents cannot be denied
4:32
but what changed i argue that it was
4:35
actually the advent of this
4:37
revolution the penny board
4:42
so the penny board is uh something that
4:45
is developed
4:46
in the 1930s 1934 to be exact
4:50
and the penny board becomes the way
4:54
most general public uh
4:58
people became coin collectors uh
5:01
starting
5:01
during the great depression and uh
5:05
pretty much through the uh
5:08
end of the wheat cent period 1959
5:12
and further the penny board
5:15
had an organization to it
5:18
that informed collectors of the
5:21
different
5:22
coins that they needed to buy or find to
5:25
put in the the board to complete the set
5:28
and it did not take long for most people
5:30
to realize that there were some real
5:31
scarce coins the 1909 s the 1909
5:35
svdb more scarce the 1914 d
5:39
the 1931 s to name a few some of the
5:42
early san francisco
5:44
mint issues in the 19 teens and 20s
5:47
also turned out to be scarce if you're
5:49
an east coast collector
5:51
but the 1909 svdb sent
5:54
will remain in collector's memory as
5:57
the most consequential of the series
6:00
so let's take a quick look at it and
6:02
talk about the lincoln center
6:06
so the lincoln center has been in
6:08
production now for over a hundred years
6:12
and it was designed by
6:15
an immigrant engraver named victor david
6:17
brenner
6:18
the coin is 0.75 inches in diameter
6:23
and features a plain edge the lincoln
6:26
scent was the first
6:28
circulating united states coin to
6:30
feature the portrait
6:31
of an identified person it was also the
6:35
first cent to bear the mottos
6:36
e pluribus unum and in god we trust
6:42
now this lincoln cent looks a lot
6:44
different than the one we circulate
6:46
today
6:47
since 1982 the lincoln cent has composed
6:51
of
6:51
97.5 zeke and 2.5 percent copper
6:56
the relief has changed the
6:59
design has been i think uh cheapened
7:02
it's undergone
7:03
some renovate some redecoration
7:07
on the reverse now we have a shield type
7:10
uh for uh 50 years we had a memorial the
7:14
lincoln memorial
7:15
on the reverse the standard weight of
7:19
the
7:19
current lincoln cent is 2.5 grams
7:23
um and so this copper uh
7:26
coin was a little bit heavier
7:30
the lean consent was introduced into
7:32
circulation on august
7:34
2nd 1909 and
7:37
it entered circulation after about a
7:39
three-year period where there was
7:41
talk that the united states would
7:45
redesign the scent denomination
7:48
according to uh
7:53
resources that we have the coinage
7:55
actually began
7:56
in june 1909 and
8:00
henry while at the mint cut the dies
8:04
the original finish design that burner
8:06
supply to the mint did not include the
8:08
motto but it was added
8:10
due to uh president taft's instruction
8:14
and brenner was chosen uh for that
8:17
for the uh or brenner came into uh
8:20
basically contact
8:21
with the government uh due to his uh
8:25
work on the panama medal for uh
8:27
president theodore
8:28
roosevelt and so roosevelt asked brenner
8:32
to design a coin to honor
8:34
the centennial of lincoln's birth and
8:37
continue his program of beautifying
8:40
american coinage
8:42
but the lincoln cent was not without its
8:44
own problems
8:45
even though it was approved by treasury
8:47
secretary franklin mcveigh
8:49
when it's a production there was a sense
8:52
of dissatisfaction
8:54
uh not only with the uh designer's
8:56
initials on the reverse
8:58
uh brenner wanted his name spelled out
9:01
uh
9:01
and settled on vdb uh
9:04
the treasury secretary uh i guess upon
9:08
hearing complaints decided he would
9:09
order a stoppage of production so that
9:12
they could remove the vdb
9:15
a bee was supposed to replace the
9:17
initials but the mint felt like it would
9:19
take too long to prepare the dyes so
9:21
they just
9:22
cut them off in total
9:25
you have 420 proofs that philadelphia
9:28
struck with vdb
9:30
and uh in august of
9:33
1909 the a a secretary
9:36
wrote the secretary of the treasury
9:38
urging to retain the vdb initials but it
9:40
was for not
9:42
the mint in philadelphia produced 28
9:44
million of these which is why the 1909
9:46
plain vdb is common and the san
9:49
francisco mint struck 484
9:53
000. the 1909 svdb was
9:58
hoarded pretty quickly upon its release
10:01
and given the fact that we think of
10:04
484 000 as a low mintage it's important
10:07
to note
10:09
that at the time 484 000 was well beyond
10:12
the scope of the coin collecting hobby
10:14
there weren't that many collectors
10:18
dealer lyman lowe is said
10:21
to have distributed a specimen of the
10:23
new scent to his customers
10:26
and according to uh disgraced numismatic
10:29
researcher walter breen uh
10:32
bowie maryland coin dealer john j zug
10:35
had
10:35
a huge hoard of these 1909 svdbs
10:39
totaling 25 000 pieces
10:42
according to david lang who attributes
10:45
this story to
10:46
coin dealer george fold uh zug
10:49
uh sold these coins uh about eight or
10:52
nine years after getting them
10:54
for about a dollar seventy five each
10:56
which means that zug would have made
10:58
forty three thousand seven hundred fifty
11:00
dollars on a 250 dollar investment
11:03
and you guys thought that the mint makes
11:05
too much off of its uh surcharges
11:08
so with the 1909 svdb sent
11:12
being in production and being out in the
11:15
wild
11:16
and coin boards attracting new
11:19
collectors to the scene
11:21
uh and the prices of the coins uh
11:24
uh quickly uh escalating beyond the
11:28
face value it became apparent
11:31
uh to the unscrupulous
11:34
that creating a 1909 svdb either by
11:40
applying a mint mark on a plane 1909
11:43
plane
11:43
or by adding a vdb initials even
11:47
on the reverse would allow them to make
11:50
to make a tidy profit therefore it
11:53
becomes very important for collectors
11:56
to understand that there are only four
11:59
mint mark placements on the 1909 svdb
12:04
scent that are authentic and i will show
12:06
you to
12:07
show them to you right here and
12:10
with these different mint mark
12:11
placements even a worn coin should be
12:14
identified
12:16
by these placements you have on the
12:18
third example
12:19
sort of a thin large s that's slightly
12:22
canted
12:23
you have an upright s right below the
12:26
zero
12:27
in the first example and you have these
12:29
two
12:30
kind of smooshed s's
12:33
one directly under the o and the other
12:36
one
12:37
between the nine and the uh left side of
12:40
the zero there
12:41
so these are the only mint mark places
12:44
for genuine 1909
12:46
svdb sense and these are the first
12:48
things
12:49
that coin graders look at before they
12:52
even bother grading the coin when
12:53
they're trying to
12:54
authenticate the coin at a grading
12:57
service
12:58
or a dealer looking at the coin before
13:00
uh
13:01
making a an offer to a collector this is
13:04
very important for you to uh to memorize
13:06
these mint mark placements if you
13:08
decide you would like to buy one that is
13:10
not graded by a professional
13:14
so what happened to brenner after he
13:16
created the coin well
13:19
brenner thought that by creating this
13:21
great coin that he would
13:23
have an in with the mint and be able to
13:25
uh design
13:26
more coins and uh and uh further uh
13:29
uh add to his uh reputation as an artist
13:33
he was taking
13:35
several uh prestigious commissions off
13:38
of the back of the
13:39
lincoln cents release uh he was also uh
13:42
honored uh quite profusely by the a
13:45
a and the numismatists at the time he
13:47
became a member of the a
13:49
a and was a i i don't know if the
13:51
current term clout chasing really
13:53
applies to brenner at the time but he
13:55
he certainly was going where the action
13:57
was with plans of making it big as an
13:59
engraver
14:00
at the same time this was going on uh
14:03
roosevelt had shifted his attention to
14:05
augustus saint-gaudens in their
14:07
idea of a pet crime to redesign all of
14:10
american coinage based on like the great
14:13
coin designs of greek antiquity
14:16
st gowden's at the time of taking up
14:18
roosevelt's uh
14:20
uh offer was uh seriously ill and in his
14:24
last
14:25
years and was unable to finish the
14:27
product
14:28
of the project we get the ten dollar and
14:31
twenty dollar coin out of uh st
14:32
gauden's efforts but it was clear that
14:35
he was trying to redesign everything
14:37
from the scent on up
14:39
so roosevelt wasn't completely uh tied
14:41
to the idea of keeping brenner's claim
14:43
in circulation
14:45
all that long and if saint gowdans had
14:47
survived
14:48
his disease long enough to finish the
14:51
coins
14:51
we may not be talking about the lincoln
14:53
center today as one of the great
14:54
american coins
14:56
but it survived that in fact not only
14:59
did it survive it the lincoln sent stood
15:02
as an example of or an archetype of how
15:05
the rest of the american coinage story
15:07
would unfold
15:08
with the introduction of the washington
15:10
quarter in 1932
15:12
the jefferson nickel in 1938 the
15:15
roosevelt dime in 1946
15:18
the franklin half dollar in 1948
15:21
and eventually the eisenhower dollar in
15:23
1971
15:25
the die was cast that liberty would be
15:28
taken
15:28
off of american coinage and replaced by
15:31
not allegorical figures of american
15:34
greatness but by great
15:35
figures of american history the lincoln
15:38
cent
15:39
survives today even though it's not
15:41
worth
15:42
anything in commerce uh even though you
15:44
uh
15:45
oftentimes would see one on the ground
15:47
and not even bother to pick it up
15:48
anymore
15:49
uh it survives due to pork barrel
15:52
spending on the part of the government
15:54
and perhaps a lack of imagination on the
15:56
part of congress
15:57
and the treasury and what to do with our
15:59
small denomination coinage
16:02
yet it is still one of the most
16:03
important and widely collected coins
16:06
in the american numismatic marketplace
16:09
from 1909 to 1958 you have a rich legacy
16:12
of brenner's original design uh born out
16:16
and many double dies repunched mint
16:18
marks
16:19
and other interesting varieties you have
16:21
the 1943
16:23
steel scent the fame 1943 copper scent
16:26
in the memorial years you have another
16:29
50 years of
16:30
numismatic curiosities and some of the
16:32
great rarities of 20th century coinage
16:35
including the 1969
16:37
uh s double die but the 1909 svdb
16:41
scent for collectors of lincoln cents or
16:43
collectors of any type of u.s coins will
16:45
stand out forever
16:47
as perhaps the most quintessential coin
16:49
of the american 20th century
16:51
it's a coin that will cost you at least
16:53
six hundred dollars today
16:55
in a very low state of good up to a
16:58
thousand dollars in au-58
17:00
and thousands of dollars for a choice
17:02
example with
17:03
original knit red uh color
17:07
through the higher grades of the
17:09
mid-state spectrum
17:10
it's an amazing coin with an amazing
17:12
story and you sure can't find 25 000 of
17:15
them anymore in one place
17:17
and if you do you'd have to pay a lot
17:19
more than a dollar 75 to get one
17:21
for coin week i'm editor charles morgan
17:24
i'll be back
17:25
uh really soon actually uh this weekend
17:28
with a video stream about carson city
17:30
morgan dollars
17:31
you'll love it definitely want you to
17:33
check it out and i'll see you then