1909 S Vdb
The 1909-S which used this die with Position #1 mint mark and an added VDB can be detected by a die chip in the right obverse field. This is shown in a picture below in the right side of the chart. Table 1 The figure with the 1909-S shown below will be identical for the 1909-S and the 1909-S VDB so the image on the right is extremely imporant. 1909-S VDB 1c PCGS MS65 RB - Popular Key Date - Lincoln Cent - Popular Key Date. 1909-S VDB 1c Lincoln Penny Small Cent PCGS AU53 Key Date Coin! 1909-S VDB Lincoln Wheat Cent - King of the LINCOLNS!! PCGS VF30 - Gold Sheild.
Background and History
The 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent (Buy on eBay) is the famous key date coin from the inaugural year of the Lincoln Cent series. This rarity was created by the removal of the designer Victor D. Brenner’s initials “V.D.B.” after as few as five working days at the San Francisco Mint. The coin has been popular since the public became aware of it, due to its perceived scarcity and its widely recounted back story.
The Lincoln Cent was the replacement for the Indian Head Cent, which had been introduced 50 years earlier in 1859. The new series was released in 1909 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. The likeness of the 16th President was designed by Victor D. Brenner, a Lithuanian immigrant who had created a bronze plaque in 1907 featuring a bust of Lincoln. President Theodore Roosevelt, who had sat for Brenner for a Panama Canal commemorative medal, liked the work of the artist so much that he chose the image of Lincoln from the plaque as the design for the new cent. Notably, this would represent the first use of a Presidential portrait on a circulating United States coin.
The reverse of the coin, which would also be designed by Brenner, featured two wheat stalks along with the required inscriptions. The designer’s initials “V.D.B.” were placed on the lower reverse in capital letters. The design would be struck at the Philadelphia and San Francisco Mint for a very short period before it was decided that the designer’s initials were too prominent and should be removed. While it is often mentioned in numismatic literature that the public opposed the prominent placement of the designer’s initials on the coin, it has also been suggested that Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber opposed them strongly, leading to their removal.
Coin Mintage
Production for the 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent was halted at just 484,000 pieces. Virtually the entire amount was placed into circulation, although many were soon retracted when people recognized the low mintage and potential value. While the mintage of the coin is not an extremely low number in the absolute sense, survivors are popular and trade for a strong premium above other Lincoln Cents of the same period. This issue has long been considered one of the most famous and popular within all of American coinage.
As a result of the short production run and low mintage, virtually all examples of this coin are early die states with sharp strikes and excellent eye-appeal. Obviously, exceptions exist, but finding a problem-free 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cent is typically not too difficult. Thanks to early hoarding and later retraction from circulation, virtually all grades are available, from well-circulated up to gem mint state with original red color.
1909 S Vdb Penny
/US0001-Lincoln-Wheat-1909-S-VDB-MS66-RD-56a178c03df78cf7726afc78.jpg "1909 s vdb penny")
It is difficult to estimate the total number of survivors of this issue, as hoards or accumulations might still exist, but a high proportion of the original mintage has likely survived. Some estimates put the figure as high as 400,000 pieces, although this number appears to be a bit on the high side. It is safe to say that at least 150,000 pieces survive across all grades.
Finest Known and Values
1909 S Vdb Penny Mintage
The finest known 1909-S VDB Lincoln Cents include about a dozen pieces graded MS-67 RD by PCGS and two pieces graded at the same level by NGC. These are periodically sold at auction, with a recent example graded PCGS MS-67 RD selling for $50,400 in 2019. Across both grading services approximately 300 pieces have graded MS-66 RD, followed by more than 1,000 pieces graded MS-65 RD. Auction prices are typically around $9,000 for an MS-66 RD and around $4,000 for an MS-65 RD.
In Red-Brown, often representing an excellent value, a single coin has been graded MS-67 RB by PCGS. Across both PCGS and NGC, more than 100 pieces have been graded MS-66 RB, followed by about 1,500 pieces graded MS-65 RB. Prices are typically around $5,000 for coins graded MS-66 RB and $3,000 for coins graded MS-65 RB.
With the coloration designated as Brown, a single example has been graded MS-67 BN by PCGS followed by about two dozen examples graded MS-66 BN by each of the services. Pricing for these coins is typically slightly lower than the prices realized for coins with Red-Brown coloration.
1909 S Vdb
The 1909-S Indian has a lower mintage than the 1909-S VDB cent, but for most grades sells for a lot less. This raises the question, why? Usually the coin with the lower mintage has higher market value, but not in this case.
The reasons come down to simple supply and demand.
In 1909, excitement over the new Lincoln cent created a frenzy of buying of the new coins. The short five-day period of 1909 VDB cents gobbled up all 26 million Philadelphia-minted cents. However, the much smaller San Francisco Mint issue was probably put into circulation despite its much lower mintage than its cousin issued later in the year (August 1909).
Thus the 1909-S Indian head cent was overlooked by hoarders and speculators as the new Lincoln cents were eagerly anticipated by the American public.
In the century since these two coins were released, the market value of the 1909-S Indian was often behind that of the 1909-S VDB cent — although in the 1920s, one could buy uncirculated 1909-S VDB cents for 25 cents each while 1909-S Indian cents in uncirculated condition sold for $1 and more.
By the time the first coin boards were printed in the 1930s, the empty space in most collections was the 1909-S VDB. Many fewer Indian head cent boards were made and sold, as there were far fewer collectors of that series at the time.
In fact, to date, the Lincoln cent is the most popular coin series with collectors as witnessed by the number of coin albums sold for the series by the major album makers, Dansco and Whitman.
I collected both series when I was in school in the 1930s and managed to find three of the 1909-S VDB cents and never found a 1909-S Indian head cent in change. But since I lived in Brooklyn, S-mint coins were uncommon in circulation.
I did know old-time collectors such as Bill Tracy, Charles Ruby and Ralph 'Curley' Mitchell who lived in California in the 1930s and 1940s and they found both coins in circulation in the early days.
My late friend Maurice M. Gould, who operated a coin business in Boston at that time, found none of the two coins in circulation but purchased many from collectors who either found them in change or bought them in 1909 when first released.
I visited the coin shop of the late Bob Johnson in San Francisco in 1963 when I was doing postgraduate work at nearby University of California, Berkeley, and he showed me a full roll of uncirculated 1909-S VDB cents he had recently purchased from a woman whose late husband bought them at a bank in 1909. He said he paid $1,000 for the roll. He also mentioned that he never bought a roll of 1909-S Indian head cents, although single coins showed up fairly often from customers who found them in change.
Over the decades, the aura of the 1909-S VDB cent has grown to the point where choice uncirculated coins are bringing over $10,000 at auction. Uncirculated 1909-S Indians still bring less, although actual population numbers are much lower.
In the July 2009 price list of California-based L&C Coins, one of the largest retailers of U.S. coins, the following were listed for sale:
Two 1909S Indian head cents, one graded PCGS VF-30 at $850 and one graded NGC VF-25 at $825. In the same price list were eleven 1909-S VDB cents ranging from a PCGS VF-20 for $1,500 to an NGC MS-65BN for $3,500. This illustrates that scarcity does not always equate to value. The mintage of the 1909-S Indian was 309,000, while the mintage of the 1909-S VDB Lincoln was 484,000.
There are numerous examples of rare coins bringing very different prices despite their small populations. A good example is the famed 1804 silver dollar; one recently sold for more than $2 million. There are 15 known specimens.
Going down the list of high-priced coins sold at auction, there are many coins that sold for less than half that amount even though only one or two specimens are known. This exemplifies the old economic axiom that supply and demand is the main pricing factor.