1962 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-052

Description

Originally assigned the designation WDDO-053, this 1962 Lincoln Memorial Cent doubled die obverse variety was reassigned to WDDO-052 after the identification of four different doubled working hubs used in 1962 cent die production compelled a comprehensive renumbering of the entire catalog. That discovery — one of the most significant developments in modern Lincoln cent variety research — revealed that many varieties previously assumed to result from independent die-level hubbing errors actually inherited their doubling characteristics from a common doubled working hub, fundamentally altering the understanding of how the 1962 WDDO population was generated. The renumbering reorganized varieties by their working hub ancestry, grouping siblings that shared hub-inherited doubling while maintaining separate entries for each individual die based on its unique marker profile. WDDO-052 carries the Wexler Variety ID 1962 1c WDDO-052, with no additional cross-references currently known. As a regular business-strike variety from the Philadelphia Mint, it was produced during the final year that the Lincoln cent was struck in the original 95% copper, 5% tin-and-zinc alloy — a composition that had remained unchanged since Victor David Brenner's obverse design debuted in 1909. The massive 1962 Philadelphia production exceeding 606 million cents demanded a large inventory of working dies and hubs, and the four doubled working hubs identified by researchers represent only those hubs whose doubling was prominent enough to be detected and documented on finished coins. Collectors attributing this variety should rely primarily on die markers to distinguish it from other WDDO entries within the same hub family, as the inherited doubling pattern may closely resemble that of its sibling varieties.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Frank Baumann Cross References: None known Comments: This variety was previously listed as WDDO-053 but was reassigned to help fill the gaping holes in the listings that were created when four different doubled working hubs were identified.
• None known Comments: This variety was previously listed as WDDO-053 but was reassigned to help fill the gaping holes in the listings that were created when four different doubled working hubs were identified.; Wexler Variety ID: 1962 1¢ WDDO-052
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References