The Fickellness of the Mint: Gobrecht and V.D.B.

[Buffalo_Pete]

Well, I know that administrations change, people move in and out of office, and the like.

 

Hatreds boil, infighting, backstabbings happend.

 

Victor David Brenner was not well liked (by high-ranking and well placed people in the Mint), nor was his design for the Lincoln Cent. Branded an "outsider", none the less even though (according to heresay lore, he was considered a Pest by certain Mint Officials), his classic and enduring design of the Cent in 1909 will forever be loved by all of us common people.

 

They (The Mint), prodded on by public complaints, proceeded to remove his V.D.B. on the reverse because it was to "prominent".

 

Strange....

 

Maybe generations do have a way of seeing things different.

 

GEE.....Christian Gobrecht had his name prominently carved into the base of the Seated Liberty Dollar coin in the mid-1800's. Was that too prominent a location??

 

Just a sign of the times?????

 

Food for your thought........Don't know it that's the ONLY example of this.

 

What do you all think?

 

Pete

[RWB]

The situation with Brenner’s Lincoln design is unusual. At the time President Roosevelt suggested its use – August 1908 – Brenner was considered by other artists to be the best medalist in the country. The previous year, he was one of two artists (Daniel Chester French was the other) who Roosevelt threatened to bring in to “fix” the Saint-Gaudens gold designs if the mint failed to produce coins. His esteem among his peers was obvious.

 

Three things got him into difficulty with the Mint Bureau in 1909. One was his attempt to pawn off an imitation of the French 1 franc reverse for the reverse of the new cent. The second was his use of his existing Lincoln medal design, with only a change of date and addition of “Liberty,” for the obverse. This design had already been produced and sold commercially and even though Roosevelt approved it, others may have felt it was not original work. The third was Brenner’s refusal to enlarge and center the portrait as required by Director Leach. This led to engraver Barber doing the work and pulled Brenner completely out of the picture for the rest of the pre-production work.

 

In 1911 Director Roberts had Jim Fraser work on a revised Lincoln design and began an attempt to have Congress authorize the change. Nothing came of this and Fraser concentrated on the nickel. In 1952 Director Ross had pattern cents struck using a version of Fraser’s Lincoln, but the project was abandoned due to increased demand for coins and political change. Compared to other portrait coins, Brenner’s Lincoln is tiny – as Roberts commented “too much bust and not enough Lincoln.” There was an article in Coin World about a year and a half ago about the Fraser Lincoln cent.

 

The removal of Brenner's initials seems to have been one of those bureaucratic knee-jerk reactions to a few minor newspaper inquiries. At the time, there was no Mint Director in office, and Secretary MacVeagh and others in Treasury were new to the work and poorly informed on what the Mint was doing. The Asst Secretary accepted engraver Barber's exaggerated explanations about altering or removing the initials and decided to remove them entirely so that production could resume as quickly as possible. There was no aesthetic, legal, ethical or moral reason for removing the initials – just Barber’s twisted ego and bureaucratic ignorance.

began an attempt to have Congress authorize the change.

[drwstr123]

In an attempt to add color to your post, the first Lincons minted after the decision to remove Brenner's initials showed the grinding marks left on the dies. SubseQuent dies were smooth.

[Tradedollarnut]

Unless you are saying that they ground the VDB off the master hub before impressing the working dies, they would not be able to 'grind the letters off' the dies because they are impressed INTO the die.

[drwstr123]

Trade- they didn't take the time to grind the VDB off of each individual coin.

[IGWT]

Unless you are saying that they ground the VDB off the master hub before impressing the working dies, they would not be able to 'grind the letters off' the dies because they are impressed INTO the die.

 

I don't know the stage at which in the die production process the VDB was effaced. I do know, though, that a die can be lapped to remove incuse letters and digits.