1946 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-028

Description

The doubled die obverse cataloged as Wexler Variety ID: 1946 1¢ WDDO-028 belongs to what is arguably the single most studied date for DDO varieties in the Lincoln Wheat cent series. With more than thirty entries, the 1946 Philadelphia variety census surpasses all but a handful of dates — a distinction for a coin with no key-date scarcity and no dramatic visual doubling. What it does possess is a nearly billion-piece mintage requiring enormous die output, a multi-impression hubbing process ripe for variance, and a seventy-year window during which researchers have examined survivors with increasingly sophisticated tools. The shell-case brass alloy of 95% copper and 5% zinc provided the planchets, linking these coins to post-war reconversion. Hub doubling on WDDO-028 was imprinted into a working die during manufacture and transferred to every cent that die produced, making it a permanent artifact rather than a random anomaly. The eight classes of hub doubling each describe a distinct mechanical cause, and proper attribution requires determining which class applies. For specialists, the 1946 cent is the ultimate testing ground for sharpening classification skills.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1946 1¢ WDDO-028
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References