The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1909-05-21
the $50 that OF Grant, the $10O that of

Even the new pennies will no longer
show poor Lo. The smallest circulating
coin Of the Nation, the one hi died by
the great common people, including
their little children, will shQ2u
of the man who thought Cd I'VE
loved common people WI u made so
many of them. Vict Brenner, a
sculptor of New York, has been work.
ing on the penny. He drew the gentle
face which he shows in his design from
photograph in the collection of Elliott
Norton, of New York. Victor Brenner
is himself rather an interesting charac-
ter. Less than twenty years ago this
artist, whose work will reach the eyes
of more people than that of better
known sculptors, came to this country
almost penniless. For his living he
sold matches. He had learned the art
of engraving from his father in Russia
and after he had gained some facility in
the use Of the English language he Sc
cured position as engraver Perhaps
it would be more concise to say he got
a job, as $4.5 a week hardly justifes
the use of the more dignified word. At
night he went to the Cooper Institute to
model in clay. In 1896, six years after
he arrived in New York from Paris, he
was earning SIS a week. Then he went
back to Paris, the beauty-loving, and
studied. Now he is again in New York,
where he has a studio and is part of the
artistic community whose members have
aspired and achieved
OF his work on the penny design the
artist says:
I would rather have Lincoln's face
on the penny than on $50 gold piece.
| have made him smiling. You will
see it on the coin. I wanted to show
the sunshine as we'll as the goodness of
his life. Indeed, | had hard time
to find a photograph of him in which
the slightest suggestion of smile ap-
peared. At last found one.
Then began to study out a situa-
ton in which Lincoln might have ap-
peared at his brightest. / finally
imagined him as talking to a child, and
that is the face on the coin. You know
a man on woman is natural when speak
ing to child. When I talk to you or
you to me, we are always on our guard.
1t is always that way with adults. But
when we talk to children our faces re-
lax and we are at our best. So I tried
to imagine Lincoln.
The artist seems to have felt the same
creative Joy in making this Lincoln de-
sign for the penny as st. Gaudens when
he modelled the beautiful rejected coin
designs at the request of President
Roosevelt. And why not? The portrait
needs to be as true on the penny as on
The gold coin.
The artistic quality of either our met
ii money or the certificates is not a mi
1or matter. In certain sense the
money used by nation is the measure
If its civilization. Always when men
each the stage of exchanging goods
which implies certain form of COM
nunity life they need medium in
which values of varying commodities
nay be expressed.
The Indians used shells. Skins of
'eaver and muskrat had in the early
ays of the Northern trapper current
alue. Long ago the Germanic peoples
expressed fines in cattle. Oxen were
nits of value and sheep decimal parts.
Whale teeth among the Fijians; glass
eads and brass wire in Africa; cacao :
eads in the land of the Aztecs; red
gathers among the South Sea Island
rs-all these have been used.
Now that man has left the primitive
age far behind and mastered many }
rts he strives to make his money safe,
urable, beautiful. Roosevelt had this
mind when he asked St. Gaudens to L
lake the design for coin. The men
ho are responsible for the contem- II
ated changes are also striving to {
'hieve the same result. e
'ex.) Enterprise. u
Ever Notice? 9,