1947-S Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-003

Description

Occupying the third catalog slot in the 1947 San Francisco Lincoln Wheat Cent DDO sequence, WDDO-003 preserves a hub misalignment distinct from the two varieties that precede it and the two that follow in the Wexler numbering. Assigned Wexler Variety ID 1947-S 1c WDDO-003, this variety emerged from a San Francisco Mint operation that produced 99,000,000 cents during 1947 — a figure that, while substantial, was dwarfed by the concurrent Denver and Philadelphia outputs. Each working die used in that production underwent a multi-impression hubbing sequence in which a hardened master hub was pressed into a softened die blank under tremendous hydraulic force; between impressions the die was annealed and repositioned, and any imprecision in that repositioning generated the doubled image that defines a DDO. The third-position numbering of WDDO-003 means collectors must navigate a five-variety field to reach correct attribution, comparing spread direction and intensity across IN GOD WE TRUST, LIBERTY, the date, and the finer portrait details that serve as secondary confirmation points. Post-war 1947-S cents returned to the pre-war bronze alloy (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) after four years of wartime composition changes, and their surfaces tend to tone to a stable medium-brown in circulated grades. No supplementary die markers have been published for WDDO-003, directing all diagnostic effort toward the doubling characteristics. Collectors are advised to use at least 7x magnification under directional lighting, with particular attention to the serifs of the LIBERTY letters where even light spread can produce measurable separation.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1947-S 1¢ WDDO-003
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References