Born Viktoras Barnauskas at Shavli, Lithuania. (His name is a point of some controversy. Sources do not agree.)

His father carved gravestone, carved in soapstone, engaged rings and brooches. Victor began to study with his father about age 13. He became an itinerant journeyman. At age 18 he went to Riga to study jewelry engraving.

Brenner emigrated to America in 1890 and got a job as a die-cutter in New York City. He worked during the day and studied at Cooper Union in the evening. Later he studied at the Art Students League and the National Academy of Design. In 1894 he set up a prosperous business as a die-cutter for jewelry and silver. His work came to the attention of the American Numismatic Society. He went to Paris in 1898 for three years. In 1900 he won a bronze medal at the Paris Exposition. Brenner joined the ANA in 1902 as member number 435.

Brenner was working on a Panama Canal medal about 1906. The obverse showed President Roosevelt. Roosevelt saw a plaque Brenner had done of Lincoln and influence the selection of Brenner to design the Lincoln cent. The public accepted the cent but objected to the designer's initials on the reverse. They were removed after about a fourth of the 1909 annual production was distributed.

Brenner married Ann Reed in 1913. He designed hundreds of medals and plaques. In 1920 69 of his pieces were exhibited at the ANS. A list of his medals was published in The Numismatist in the issues of July and August 1983.

Brenner died in a hospital in New York City. In 1978 he was elected to the ANA Numismatic Hall of Fame.

bio: DAB; Fielding; P-F; WWWA-H; WWWAmArt

obit: NUM 37 MAY 1924 page 372-373 (photo)

see: Catalogue of the Exhibition of the ANS, 1920