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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 4890584, member: 101855"]One of the YNs at my local club asked me to write this and given a presentation on the Lincoln cent. Here it is. I have not been an active Lincoln Cent collector for many years. Therefore the coin you see here are from my boyhood and teenager collection and not among "the finest known examples."          I don't know about most of today's collectors, but my introduction to coin collecting began with the 13th Edition of The Red Book, and the two Whitman Lincoln cent folders that covered the series from 1909 to 1959. As a ten-year-old I began looking at every Lincoln cent in sight, but after a while, my interests turned to Indian cents and type coins. I finally decided to finish my 1909 to 1940 collection around 1982 when I bought the last coin I needed, a 1909-S-VDB with ANACS paper certification. Since then I have acquired a few Lincoln Cents and related items although the series has never been my top priority since those early collector days. Now that the Lincoln cent has been issued for 111 years, I thought it might be interesting to look at the highlights of this most enduring of all U.S. coins.          The Lincoln cent had its beginnings as a project for President Theodore Roosevelt. The same president who spearheaded the effort that gave us the St. Gaudens $20 gold coin also initiated the Lincoln cent. As a progressive Republican, Roosevelt viewed himself as the heir apparent to Abraham Lincoln’s legacy. Brenner's Panama Canal Medal [ATTACH=full]1180251[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1180252[/ATTACH] Brenner's Abraham Lincoln Medal [ATTACH=full]1180253[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1180254[/ATTACH]          In 1907 Theodore Roosevelt was posing for artist Victor D. Brenner (** See Brenner’s biography in the footnote) for a medal that would be awarded to the workers who built the Panama Canal. Building the canal was hard and dangerous work. In addition to the usual hazards that are connected with a major construction project, there was the constant threat of diseases like malaria and yellow fever. Previous attempts to build the canal had failed because of these obstacles. Roosevelt thought that it would be appropriate to present a presidential award to all of those who had worked on the project for a year or more.          During their conversations Brenner mentioned that he was working on a couple of Lincoln projects, a plaque and a medal. He showed Roosevelt an example of the medal, and Roosevelt was hooked. The project came to fruition in August 1909 when the first Lincoln Cents were issued. The coins were immediately popular as newspaper boys made a brief side business of selling the new coins to those who were anxious to see the new cent. [ATTACH=full]1180255[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1180256[/ATTACH] 1909-VDB The first Lincoln cents had Victor David Brenner's initials, V.D.B., prominently displayed at the bottom of the reverse of the coin. After some people objected to this, mint personnel removed the initials thus creating the 1909-VDB and 1909 Plain cents.          One of the by-products of this change was the most famous Lincoln cent, the 1909-S-VDB. The San Francisco Mint, which was in its second year of producing cents, was making a limited number of the coins. When the change came, it was quickly noted that the mintage was "only" 484,000 pieces. The coin soon was a "key date" in the Lincoln series. It became the object of desire for those who have spent countless hours going though pocket change and bank rolls of cents. The 1909-S-VDB cent is hardly rare, but it sells for prices ranging from hundreds of dollars in the lowest, no problem grades to a few thousand dollars for high grade pieces with full mint red.          The biggest 1909 cent prize for advanced collectors is the 1909-VDB cent in Matte Proof. With an estimated issue of 400 to 600 coins it is the rarest of all the Matte Proof Lincoln cents which were produced from 1909 to 1916. It was disclosed a few years ago that one person has hoarded at least 52 examples of the coin. Today the demand for the coin is intense although no one knows what affect that hoard might have on the market price.          In 1918 the mint reinstated Victor D. Brenner's initials below Lincoln's shoulder on the obverse. They have remained there to the present day. The letters are so small and hard to see, that most people need a strong glass to spot them. 1911-D This date gets very little press, but it does mark a minor historical milestone. It was the first year that the Denver Mint issued cents. [ATTACH=full]1180258[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1180259[/ATTACH] 1914-D This is the second most famous date and mint mark combination in the Lincoln cent series. With a mintage of 1,193,000 it is not as highly regarded as the 1909-S-VDB in the circulated grades, but scarcer and more valuable in Mint State. Since this coin was issued after the introductory period for the Lincoln Cent, collectors and dealers did not save as many pieces in Mint State. By the time collectors realized that the 1914-D was a good coin, many of them were in the circulated grades.           One of the tricks that dishonest people have tried to pull on collectors is to alter the very common 1944-D cents into the 1914-D by scraping off part of the first “4” in the date. The digits in the date of the genuine 1914 coin are slightly smaller, and the “1” is too far to the right on the bogus, altered coin. Unfortunately the deception has fooled some collectors through the years. An altered 1944-D cent, now a "1914-D cent" [ATTACH=full]1180261[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1180262[/ATTACH] To be continued - next message[/QUOTE]

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