1961 Doubled Working Hub Reverse WWHR-001

Description

First documented doubled working hub reverse for the 1961 Jefferson Nickel, attributed by the Wexler Team as Wexler Variety ID: 1961 Working Hub Reverse 1 (WWHR-001). A doubled working hub variety differs fundamentally from a doubled die in the stage of manufacture where the error originates. The working hub is created by impressing a master die into a steel blank, and if that impression is made twice with a slight shift, the resulting working hub carries doubled features that are then transferred to every working die it produces. This cascade effect means a WWHR variety can potentially appear on coins struck from multiple working dies, each inheriting the identical doubling pattern from the parent hub. The 1961 Jefferson Nickel was struck during the post-war boom era, when the Philadelphia Mint was producing nickels in quantities exceeding 70 million annually. Felix Schlag's design had been in continuous production for twenty-three years by 1961, and the Mint's die shop was manufacturing working hubs and dies in sufficient volume that occasional misalignment during the hubbing process was statistically inevitable. The existence of four documented WWHRs for 1961 alone suggests that hub-level doubling may have been more prevalent than die-level doubling for this particular date.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1961 Working Hub Reverse 1 (WWHR-001)
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References