1946 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-036

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Verified LegacyDoubled Die Obverse

Attribution

Verified by

Wexler Team

Original Research

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Market Value

N/A

Rarity Index

N/A

Discovery Date

1946

Last Sold

N/A

Description

Thirty-six cataloged DDO varieties for the 1946 Lincoln Wheat Cent places this date among the most prolific for obverse hub doubling in the entire series — exceeded only by 1943 and rivaled by few others. Philadelphia's return to standard bronze composition after the wartime shell-case brass years coincided with massive production of over 991 million cents, consuming an extraordinary number of obverse dies. WDDO-036 is cataloged by the Wexler Team under Variety ID: 1946 1¢ WDDO-036. The concentration of DDO varieties in 1946 suggests either systematic hubbing press maintenance issues or a deliberate acceleration of die production that compressed quality tolerances during the hubbing process. Varieties numbered in the 30s typically exhibit subtler doubling than earlier entries in the sequence, requiring magnification of 5x or greater and careful lighting angles to confirm. No supplementary die markers or competing catalog cross-references have been published for this particular working die.