1962 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-018
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Description
Displaying a strong spread on the date combined with extra thickness on the letters of IN GOD WE TRUST, the 1962 Lincoln Memorial Cent DDO-018 ranks among the more prominent doubled die obverse varieties in the regular-strike population for this date. The involvement of both the date and the motto indicates that the hub misalignment during die manufacture was broad enough to affect design elements across a wide span of the obverse — from the date at lower left to the motto arching across the top — suggesting a substantial displacement event rather than a localized shift. As a business strike from the Philadelphia Mint's 1962 output of over 606 million cents, this variety entered everyday circulation, and surviving examples range from well-worn to uncirculated depending on how quickly they were pulled from commerce by alert collectors or accumulated in rolls. DDO-018 is tracked under die marker references UVC-2022 and DMR-020. The "extra thickness" characterization on IN GOD WE TRUST is a signature of hub doubling in which the secondary impression closely overlaps the primary, adding perceptible width to the letter strokes without creating a clearly separated secondary outline — a subtler manifestation than the spread doubling visible on the date, but one that experienced variety specialists learn to recognize as a consistent accompanying feature. Collectors who locate the strong date spread should verify the motto as a confirmation check: the presence of extra thickness on IN GOD WE TRUST, viewed at 8x or higher, confirms the hub doubling origin and rules out mechanical doubling, which would not produce the same consistent pattern across widely separated design elements.
Die Markers
- UVC-2022; DMR-020