Hi all. Today I received my 2019 Silver Proof Set from the mint which came with the special Reverse Proof Cent from the West Point mint and I noticed something interesting. As I was looking closer at the Reverse Cent I saw something ever so small on Lincoln's sleeve. It's a VDB! I checked the Cent in the plastic case and it had the VDB too. Is this new or have I been missing something??
first off, that reverse proof is amazing looking. second, to answer your question, in 1909 people had brought to attention Victor David Brenner's initials on the reverse of the wheat cent seeming to be an advertisement for him because they were so prominent so the mint had them remover from the reverse and added to the obverse on the sleeve. his initials have been there on every Lincoln cent since then.
Thanks for the reply! It does look super cool. I need to get it into some proper protection right away. I've ordered the proof set for the past few years now and must not have noticed the VDB. I didn't think it was on any of the modern cents, only the 1909.
It was put on Lincoln's jacket in 1918. Altered 1914-D's, 1914 does not have the initials, but 1944 does, will often have this area suspiciously removed.
Welcome to Coin Talk. I also received my 2019 Silver Proof set today. It included the reverse proof Lincoln cent. According to an article in the April 15, 2019 issue of Coin World the cent is "...packaged in Vapor Corrosion Inhibitor (VCI) heat-sealed plastic bags that are LDPE embedded with a corrosion inhibitor, the Mint states". It's your choice how you want to store the coin but I'm leaving it in the original packaging.
