1947-S Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-005

Description

Rounding out the documented San Francisco 1947 Lincoln Wheat Cent DDO family at the fifth catalog position, WDDO-005 represents another independent hub misalignment event from the post-war San Francisco die shop. Assigned Wexler Variety ID 1947-S 1c WDDO-005 by the Wexler Team, this variety joins WDDO-001 through WDDO-004 as part of a five-member DDO cluster that collectively demonstrates the frequency of hubbing errors across a large production run. San Francisco's 1947 output of 99,000,000 Lincoln cents required a substantial complement of working dies, and each die's multi-step hubbing process presented an opportunity for the steel hub and the developing working die to shift out of alignment between impressions. What distinguishes WDDO-005 from its four siblings is the unique combination of spread direction, magnitude, and affected design elements produced by its specific misalignment geometry. Without published die markers for this variety, the doubling pattern itself serves as the sole attribution criterion, demanding that collectors perform side-by-side comparisons with reference images for each of the five 1947-S DDOs. The 1947 date falls within the post-war bronze restoration period, when the Mint had returned to the standard 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc alloy after the 1943 zinc-coated steel and 1944-1946 shell-case brass compositions. Magnification of at least 7x directed at the motto, LIBERTY, and the date provides adequate resolution to characterize the spread, while 16x to 20x stereo examination offers optimal differentiation between closely similar varieties in the group.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1947-S 1¢ WDDO-005
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References