Victor David Brenner

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.

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, where 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.

Bronze bas-reliefs dated 1907 and signed by Brenner have been identified and some sold in auctions for as much as $3,900.