1963 Lincoln Memorial Cent - Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-013

Description

Listed as the thirteenth doubled die obverse variety for the 1963 P-mint Lincoln Memorial Cent, WDDO-013 resulted from a misalignment during the multi-impression hubbing process that created visible doubling on the obverse design elements. Each working die used at the Philadelphia Mint received its design through repeated applications of the working hub under enormous hydraulic pressure, and the potential for fractional displacement between any two impressions in the sequence meant that doubled die varieties were an inherent byproduct of the manufacturing process rather than an anomaly. The 1963 production year at Philadelphia yielded 754,110,000 business-strike cents, a volume that consumed hundreds of individual obverse working dies over the course of the year and generated the raw statistical probability for the many DDO varieties now documented. Without specific die marker data published for WDDO-013, collectors seeking to attribute this variety should rely on comparison with authenticated specimens or detailed die photographs from the Wexler Doubled Die Files, examining the precise character, direction, and magnitude of the doubling across the obverse legends, date, and portrait elements. Victor David Brenner's obverse portrait and Frank Gasparro's Memorial reverse adorn this coin, the same design pairing that served the denomination from 1959 through 2008. Collectors searching through bank-wrapped rolls or bulk lots of 1963 Philadelphia cents have a reasonable chance of encountering varieties from this extensive DDO catalog.

External References