1961 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-006

Description

Struck for general circulation at the Philadelphia Mint, the 1961 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-006 is a business-strike variety in the Lincoln Memorial Cent series that records yet another instance of imperfect hub registration during die manufacture. The Philadelphia facility produced the vast majority of 1961 cents without a mintmark, and the sheer volume of working dies required for the year's output created repeated opportunities for hubbing misalignments to produce doubled die varieties. WDDO-006 is the sixth of thirteen documented DDO varieties for the date, positioned within a sequence that ranges from subtle close spreads to more pronounced design-element displacement. As with many varieties from this period, the doubling resulted from the multi-impression hubbing process then standard at the U.S. Mint, where each working die received several impressions from a master hub to achieve adequate design depth. Any shift in alignment between those impressions — whether rotational, lateral, or involving slight tilt — left overlapping images in the die steel. No cross-references to other cataloging services have been established for WDDO-006, and published die marker data remains limited, so collectors attributing this variety should work from photographic comparisons against confirmed specimens to verify the specific doubling pattern.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Wexler Team

External References