1963 Lincoln Memorial Cent - Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-050

Description

WDDO-050 is a doubled die obverse on the 1963 Lincoln Memorial cent. The number fifty itself is remarkable for a single date and mint combination, illustrating how the industrial scale of cent production at the Philadelphia Mint during the early 1960s created an environment where hubbing anomalies were not exceptional accidents but recurring byproducts of a high-throughput manufacturing process. Each of the hundreds of obverse dies used to strike 754,110,000 cents in 1963 was individually hubbed, and each hubbing session carried an independent probability of misalignment. Attributed by the Wexler Team and carrying the designation Wexler Variety ID 1963 1c WDDO-050, this variety should be identified by examining the obverse for secondary design images under magnification, then confirming the attribution through die marker comparison with reference photographs. The 95% copper and 5% zinc planchet composition, combined with the absence of a mint mark, is standard for all 1963 Philadelphia cents. Victor David Brenner's obverse portrait of Lincoln and Frank Gasparro's Memorial reverse constitute the design pairing. With the coin shortage of 1965-67 only two years away, 1963 represents one of the final years of conventional cent production before sweeping changes transformed American coinage policy.

Cross References

• Wexler Variety ID: 1963 1¢ WDDO-050

External References