1950-D Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-010

Description

Bearing Wexler Variety ID: 1950-D 1¢ WDDO-010, the tenth cataloged doubled die obverse for the 1950-D Lincoln Wheat cent was attributed by the Wexler Team. Denver struck over 334 million cents in 1950, a solid postwar production figure that required substantial die turnover throughout the year. Ten documented DDO varieties for this date-mint indicate a healthy level of research attention from the variety collecting community. The multi-impression hubbing technology used in 1950 was essentially unchanged from the process that had been creating working dies for decades — a hardened steel hub bearing the coin's design in relief was pressed into a softened die blank multiple times, with annealing between impressions to relieve work-hardening in the die steel. Any positional change of the hub between these impressions created doubled design elements that would reproduce on every coin subsequently struck. WDDO-010 occupies the boundary between middle-tier and later discoveries in the sequence, suggesting doubling that is genuine but may require patient examination to confirm. The early 1950s represent a productive period for Lincoln cent variety research, as circulated examples remain widely available in dealer accumulations and estate lots, providing ongoing opportunities for cherry-picking specimens with verifiable hub doubling.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1950-D 1¢ WDDO-010
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References