1963 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-067

Description

Proof coinage from the early 1960s represents a golden era for Lincoln cent variety collecting, and the 1963 WDDO-067 embodies this period. The Philadelphia Mint's proof cent production in 1963 delivered 3,075,645 pieces to collectors through proof sets, each coin individually struck at higher-than-normal pressure using specially prepared dies and polished planchets. The proof die preparation sequence — chrome plating over polished steel, with selective frosting of the devices — preserved any hubbing anomaly that had been introduced during the design transfer stage, meaning that a doubled proof die delivered both mirror-field beauty and numismatic variety interest in every coin it struck. Die pairs in proof service were retired after approximately 3,000 impressions to maintain surface quality, constraining the population of any proof DDO variety to a small subset of the total mintage. WDDO-067 carries the doubled obverse image created when the working hub was fractionally displaced between the multiple impressions needed to sink the full design into the die blank. This displacement, once imprinted in the die steel, was reproduced identically on every coin struck from the die — the defining characteristic that separates true hub doubling from machine doubling or die deterioration effects. Cross-referenced as Wexler Variety ID 1963 1c Pr WDDO-067 and attributed by the Wexler Team, this variety requires careful magnified examination and die marker analysis for positive identification. The coin was struck on a 95% copper and 5% zinc planchet, carrying Brenner's Lincoln portrait and Gasparro's Memorial reverse.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1963 1¢ Pr WDDO-067
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References