A Master Medalist, a President, Tuberculosis, and a Congress: Contributions More Lasting than Bronze

he initials VDB are well known to collectors of the Lincoln penny, the obverse (front surface) of which reflects the longest-running design in the history of US coinage. In 1909, in its first coinage, VDB appears in embossed format at the bottom of the coin's reverse, in honor of its designer, Victor David Brenner. The initial San Francisco Mint coin, the 1909-S VDB, remains a sought-after rarity; most collectors never fill the open-mouthed, empty " 1909-S VDB " hole in their penny albums. Despite a tradition of artists' signing their names or initials in coinage, controversy arising from the prominence of the VDB initials resulted in their removal that same year. Tucked into the left lowermost ridge of the bust of Abra-ham Lincoln, Brenner's initials were restored to the ob-verse of Lincoln pennies coined since 1918. Discernable by magnification, the inconspicuous placement of Brenner's signature imitates that of a Sicilian engraver, Euainetos, whose work Brenner described as having an " extraordinary decorative sense woven into every line, giving to the empty spaces as much charm as to the modeled surfaces. " Brenner, born Viktoras Baranauskas in Lithuania in 1871, immigrated to the United States in 1890, bringing with him stone-cutting skills that he had learned from his father. Employed as an engraver in New York City, he took evening classes first at Cooper Union, then at the National Academy School and the Art Students League of New York. In 1898, he began to study metal sculpting in Paris under Louis-Oscar Roty and Alexandre Charpentier and became acquainted with Auguste Rodin. Roty taught Brenner the lost wax method of casting to make medals. Brenner's work subsequently won high honors at the Paris Exhibition produced a medal, plaquettes, and a bas-relief for the 1909 centenary of Lincoln's birth. US President Theodore Roos-evelt saw examples of those works while posing for Brenner during the making of a Panama Canal service medal, and Brenner gained two more commissions as a result. The first commission was to design a penny featuring Lincoln, a radical departure from tradition—heretofore, no president had appeared on US coins intended for widespread circulation. The second commission was to design a medal for the Sixth International Congress on Tuberculosis, to be held in Washington, DC, in 1908. Roosevelt, who was invited to preside over this Congress, wrote: " The importance of the crusade against tuberculosis… cannot be overestimated when it is …