1944 (S) Lincoln Wheat Cent - Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-018

Description

Eighteen doubled die obverse varieties documented for the 1944-S Lincoln Wheat cent mark this date-mint as one of the most thoroughly researched in the Wexler catalog, and WDDO-018 stands at the upper end of that sequence. Cross-referenced as Wexler Variety ID: 1944-S 1¢ WDDO-018, this variety was produced at San Francisco on shell-case copper planchets in the first year of the shell-case alloy, used from 1944 through 1946. The San Francisco Mint, situated in the city's downtown financial district, struck over 282 million cents in 1944 — a substantial production that generated the die turnover necessary for multiple hub doubling events to occur. WDDO-018's high sequential position indicates it was among the later discoveries for the date, likely exhibiting relatively subtle doubling that required dedicated examination and careful comparison against the seventeen previously cataloged varieties to confirm as a distinct attribution. The Wexler Team's protocols for adding new DDO catalog numbers require demonstrating that the doubling pattern — specifically, the combination of affected design elements, spread direction, and class of doubling — does not match any existing catalog entry. This rigorous deduplication process ensures that WDDO-018 represents a genuinely unique die, not a misidentified specimen of an already-cataloged variety.

Cross References

• Wexler Variety ID: 1944-S 1¢ WDDO-018

External References