RARE 1972 D with no V.D.B., Breen # 2268

Hey, check those 1972 D Lincoln cents for the missing Victor D. Brenner initials on the lower edge of truncation of the bust, at about 7 o"clock. 

The U.S. Mint has attributed this issue defect to foreign matter in the die.  Hmmmmm?  You can judge the voracity of that explanation yourself; foreign matter in all three initials and their respective periods?  I wonder. 

Anyway. the missing V.D.B. is detected easily enough with good eyesight, or (as in my case) with a 5X magnifying glass.  A quick reference to any Lincoln cent minted after 1918 can be used as an example of what the initials should look like.  The coin is considered rare according to Walter Breen's notes in  his Encyclopedia of U.S. Coins.

BACKGROUND:

Victor D. Brenner signed his full name to the design submitted for the obverse of this coin in 1909 (the 100th anniversary of Lincoln's birth).  But, Mint Director Leach removed Brenner's signature and instead, put the initials VDB on the bottom of the reverse.  Check out a 1909 VDB.  The news media, then apparently unoccupied with anything significant to report, attacked the use of the initials.  People in general and coin collectors in particular thereafter hoarded the coins with the likely expectation that the initials would be removed in subsequent issues.  Sure enough, Brenner's initials were dropped during the 1909 cent production!  And, not so strangely, high grade 1909 are not, in my opinion, nearly as plentiful as the 1909 VDB.  But, one needs a 1909 VDB for the type set collecting fraternity, so it usually sells at a premium to that of the 1909.

While this topic was being badmittoned about during the next several years, a suggestion to substitute a B on the truncation of Lincoln's bust was shot down by Samuel Barber, a contemporary sculptor of Brenner.  Barber had designed the then current Half Dollar, Quarter Dollar, and Dime and understandably he did not want Brenner's work erroneously attributed to him.  And, vice versa. This fussing back and forth lasted several years.  

Then shortly after Barber's death in late 1917, hmmmmm?, Brenner's initials were restored in January, 1918 to the truncation of the bust.  They remain there today.

Not so strangely, high grade 1909 cents are not nearly as plentiful as the 1909 VDB.  But since the VDB cent is in demand for both the Lincoln collector and the type coin collector, the price rises relatively for the VDB