1963-D Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-013

Description

Assigned the Wexler Variety ID 1963-D 1c WDDO-013, this Doubled Die Obverse of the 1963-D Lincoln Memorial Cent is one of an extensive roster of hubbing anomalies documented for the date, reflecting the Denver Mint's extraordinary production volume of 1,774,020,400 pieces in 1963. That figure ranks among the highest single-facility, single-year mintages in the entire history of the Lincoln cent, and the industrial demands it placed on the die shop were immense — hundreds of working dies had to be produced, each requiring multiple hub impressions to bring up the full obverse and reverse designs. The doubling that defines a WDDO variety is the permanent record of a slight misalignment between hub and die during one of those impressions, frozen into the die steel and then transferred to every coin the die strikes until it is retired. Attributed by the Wexler Team, WDDO-013 has no additional cross-references currently known, and its specific doubling characteristics and die markers should be confirmed against published attribution guides for precise identification. Collectors new to die-variety attribution for the 1963-D cent should be aware that the large number of cataloged WDDO varieties for this date means that superficially similar coins can belong to entirely different dies — only a careful comparison of individual die markers under adequate magnification, typically 7x to 10x, can separate one WDDO from another. The 1963-D cent carries Brenner's obverse portrait and Gasparro's Memorial reverse on a planchet of 95% copper and 5% zinc, the standard Lincoln cent composition from 1962 forward after tin was removed from the alloy.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1963-D 1¢ WDDO-013
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References