In 1909, the United States Mint debuted the Lincoln Penny. This coin, the first in US history to depict a president and a real person, was engraved by David Victor Brenner. Originally wanting to emblazon his name somewhere on the coin, Brenner yielded and eventually just designed the cent with his initials on the bottom of the reverse (in between the stalks of wheat.) After a fairly limited run, the Mint yanked the coin and removed his initials before resuming production due to negative public reaction towards it.
These "VDB" pennies have become quite scarce and fetch, for a penny, remarkable prices on the market. Even in poor grades, a standard VDB Lincoln penny routinely fetches $15 - $25. Those pennies minted in San Francisco (VDB-S) fetch anywhere from $500 to $2,000 in the lowest grades. There were less than 500,000 VDB-S pennies minted that year. Compare that with the far more common 1909-P which had a mintage of over 72,000,000 and it becomes very clear why the VDB-S generates such results.
Notice the V.D.B at the bottom of the reverse/wheat side of the coin. It wasn't until 1918 that Brenner's initials would return to the penny. His initials can still be seen to this day on the obverse/front of the penny in tiny, tiny font on Lincoln's shoulder.
