1947-S Repunched Mintmark WRPM-017

Description

Immediately following WRPM-016 in the catalog sequence, this seventeenth repunched mint mark on the 1947-S Lincoln Wheat Cent offers another window into the die preparation practices at San Francisco during the transition from wartime to full peacetime production. The Wexler Team attributed the variety under Wexler Variety ID 1947-S 1¢ WRPM-017, recording a working die where the S mint mark punch contacted the die surface at least twice with detectable positional variance. The mechanics behind every RPM are rooted in a pre-1989 process: a die setter held a small hardened steel letter punch against the face of a soft working die blank and struck it with a mallet, then inspected the result. If the impression was off-center, too shallow, or otherwise unsatisfactory, a corrective blow was applied, and the ghost of the first attempt remained embedded in the die for the life of its production run. The 1947-S date has yielded multiple documented RPMs, indicating that San Francisco prepared enough working dies to generate a statistically meaningful number of repunching events across its annual cent production. No additional cross-references are currently listed for this variety.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Ben Peters Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1947-S 1¢ WRPM-017
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References