| Victor David Brenner | |
| Birth Name: | Avigdor David Brenner |
| Birth Date: | 12 June 1871 |
| Birth Place: | Šiauliai, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) |
| Resting Place: | Mount Judah Cemetery Ridgewood, Queens, U.S. |
| Nationality: | Russian-American |
| Known For: | Designing the Lincoln cent |
| Occupation: | Sculptor, engraver, medalist |
Victor David Brenner (born Avigdor David Brenner; June 12, 1871 – April 5, 1924) was a Lithuanian sculptor, engraver and medalist known primarily as the designer of the United States Lincoln cent.
Brenner was born to Jewish parents in Shavel, Lithuania, Russian Empire. His name at birth was Avigdor David Brenner ("Avigdor ben Gershon," in Hebrew, as his gravestone attests), but he changed the name to Victor David Brenner.[1]
Brenner emigrated to the United States in 1890, living mostly in the New York City area. He arrived with little more to fall back but the trade his father taught him — gem and seal engraving. This technical preparation included the tools of the sculptor's craft. He took night classes at Cooper Union and soon learned English as he had learned French.
Eight years later Brenner was in Paris, studying with the great French medalist Oscar Roty at the Académie Julian. There he exhibited his work and obtained awards at the Paris Exposition of 1900. He returned to the United States, whre his career prospered.
Brenner died in 1924 and is buried at Mount Judah Cemetery, Ridgewood, Queens, New York.
Brenner is probably best known for his enduring Lincoln coin design, the obverse of which is the longest-running design in United States Mint history, and perhaps the most reproduced piece of art in world history. His design was picked by President Theodore Roosevelt, who had earlier posed for him in New York. Since immigrating 18 years earlier, he had become one of the nation's premier medalists. Roosevelt had learned of his talents in a settlement house on New York City's Lower East Side and was immediately impressed with a bas-relief that Brenner had made of Lincoln, based on the early Civil War era photographer, Mathew Brady's photograph.
Roosevelt, who considered Lincoln the savior of the Union and the greatest Republican president, and also considered himself Lincoln's political heir, ordered the new Lincoln penny to be based on Brenner's work and that it be produced to commemorate Lincoln's 100th birthday in 1909. The likeness of President Lincoln on the obverse of the coin is an adaptation of a plaque Brenner executed several years earlier and which had come to the attention of President Roosevelt in New York.[2] Bronze bas-reliefs dated 1907 and signed by Brenner have been identified and some sold in auctions for as much as $3,900.[3]
Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard, whom Brenner counted among his friends, gave the sculptor an unpublished portrait of Lincoln which served Brenner as a basis for Lincoln's features. He also examined other portraits.[4]
When Brenner forwarded the model of the Lincoln cent to the Director of the Mint, the design bore his whole name, after the fashion of the signatures on the coinage of other countries, notably on the gold coins which Oscar Roty designed for France. The director had the initials substituted for the name.[4]
Following the precedent of James B. Longacre, whose initials "JBL" (or simply "L") graced a number of U.S. coin designs for much of the latter half of the 19th century, Brenner placed his initials "VDB" at the bottom of the reverse between the wheat ear stalks.
Widespread criticism of the initials' prominence resulted in their removal midway through 1909, the design's first year of issue. In 1918, they returned as small letters below Lincoln's shoulder, where they remain today. Incorporation of a designer's initials into a coin design is now commonplace in America.
A 1909 VDB US cent was mounted on the calibration target on the Mars Curiosity rover. This is a nod to the rover's geologic mission and the common practice by geologists including a coin in photographs to document the size of objects.[5]
Several sources claim that Brenner's original name was "Viktoras Baranauskas" (or "Barnauskas"). In a 2000 article in Draugas, Lithuanian-American historical researcher Edward Baranauskas described this as a "fable" — one which Lithuanian numismatist Jonas K. Karys "spent many years exposing (...) as a fabrication". Baranauskastraced the claim to a 1929 speech given by Alexander M. Rackus, and noted that "(u)nfortunately, [Rackus] could not substantiate much of what he said."[1]
Some of Brenner's most noteworthy sculptural works include: