You’ve seen it thousands of times. It is in your pocket right now. It’s on the penny, tucked away in your wallet, and plastered across five-dollar bills. But have you ever actually looked at the Abraham Lincoln side profile and wondered why we always see him from that specific angle?
Most people just assume it’s a random choice. A coin has two sides; a face has two sides. Simple, right? Honestly, it’s not. There is a weirdly deep rabbit hole involving facial deformities, a 12-year-old girl’s advice, and a 19th-century photographer who basically invented the "Instagram filter" of the 1860s.
The "Good Side" Was Actually a Medical Necessity
Abraham Lincoln had a lopsided face. That’s not a dig at his looks—it’s a scientific fact confirmed by modern laser scans of his life masks. Specifically, he suffered from a condition called craniofacial microsomia.
Basically, the left side of Lincoln’s face was significantly smaller than the right. His left eye socket was set back further and sat higher than the right one. This caused his left eye to occasionally drift upward on its own—a condition called strabismus. If you look at a rare direct, front-on photo of him, he looks a bit... disjointed.
Photographers in the mid-1800s weren't stupid. They knew how to play with light and angles. Because the left side of his face was "underdeveloped" (in the words of Mount Rushmore sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who called it "primitive"), Lincoln and his photographers almost always preferred his right profile.
The right side was the strong side. It was the side where his jaw looked firmer and his features looked more symmetrical. It’s why the Abraham Lincoln side profile we know today—the one on the penny—is facing right.
That One Photo from 1864
The image etched into our collective memory didn't just appear out of nowhere. It’s based on a very specific photograph taken on February 9, 1864. Lincoln walked into Mathew Brady’s studio in Washington, D.C., just a few days before his 55th birthday.
The man behind the camera that day was actually Anthony Berger, one of Brady's top assistants. He captured Lincoln in a sharp, crisp right-side profile. This wasn't just a casual snapshot. Lincoln used these "cartes de visite" (basically 19th-century business cards) as a political tool.
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He once famously said, "Brady and the Cooper Union speech made me president." He knew the power of a curated image.
Fast forward to 1909. The U.S. Mint wanted to celebrate Lincoln's 100th birthday. They hired Victor David Brenner, a Lithuanian-born sculptor, to design a new penny. Brenner didn't reinvent the wheel. He looked at that 1864 Brady/Berger photograph and used it as his primary inspiration.
Why He’s the Only One Looking Right
If you line up a penny, a nickel, a dime, and a quarter, you’ll notice something kind of funny. Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Washington are all looking to the left. Lincoln is the odd man out, staring off to the right.
There’s no secret government conspiracy here. Honestly, it was just the designer's choice. Since Brenner’s original plaque (which he made before the coin) was based on that right-facing photo, the penny ended up that way too.
There was actually a huge drama when the penny first came out. Brenner put his initials, "V.D.B.," on the back of the coin. People lost their minds. They thought it was "illegal advertising" for the artist. The Mint ended up scrubbing the initials off within weeks, only to bring them back much later in tiny, microscopic letters under Lincoln’s shoulder.
The Beard that Saved the Profile
We can't talk about the Abraham Lincoln side profile without mentioning the beard. For most of his life, Lincoln was clean-shaven. He was also, by all accounts, a "homely" man.
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In 1860, an 11-year-old girl named Grace Bedell wrote him a letter. She told him his face was too thin and that he’d look better with whiskers because "all the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husbands to vote for you."
Lincoln listened. The beard filled out his gaunt jawline and masked some of that facial asymmetry. It turned a "queer, sagacious visage" into the iconic, fatherly figure we see on the penny. Without that beard, the profile view would have looked much harsher, highlighting the deep "crevices" and wrinkles that Civil War stress had carved into his skin.
Actionable Takeaways for History Buffs
If you want to spot the nuances in Lincoln's profile next time you're looking at a coin or a portrait, keep these details in mind:
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- Look at the lower lip: In the right profile, Lincoln’s lower lip typically protrudes slightly further than the upper one, a trait called a "pouting" lip that he was self-conscious about.
- The Hair Tactic: He often combed his hair forward on the left side to hide how much smaller that ear was compared to the right.
- The Hidden "VDB": If you have a penny from 1918 or later, get a magnifying glass. Look at the very bottom edge of Lincoln’s shoulder. You can still see Brenner’s initials today.
The Abraham Lincoln side profile isn't just a piece of art; it’s a carefully constructed image of a man who knew his flaws and worked with the best artists of his time to hide them. He turned a "bad side" into the most reproduced image in American history.
To see this in action, compare a 1909 "V.D.B." penny with a modern shield-back penny. While the back has changed from wheat stalks to the Lincoln Memorial and now a shield, the right-facing profile has remained virtually untouched for over 115 years. It is perhaps the most successful "rebranding" in political history.