1 Cent 'Lincoln - Wheat Ears Reverse'

The Lincoln cent was the first regularly issued U.S. coin to bear a real person's likeness, a deliberate break from the longstanding convention — rooted in anti-monarchical sentiment — that portraits of living or historical individuals had no place on American coinage. President Theodore Roosevelt pushed the redesign as part of a broader beautification campaign for U.S. coinage, commissioning sculptor Victor David Brenner. The initial 1909 issues included Brenner's initials prominently on the reverse, which provoked enough public controversy that the Mint pulled them within weeks of release.

Those first VDB-initialed cents from Philadelphia and San Francisco are now among the most recognized varieties in American numismatics — the 1909-S VDB in particular, with a mintage just above 484,000.