1964-D Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-022

Description

Attributed by the Wexler Team as Wexler Variety ID: 1964-D 1¢ WDDO-022, with no additional cross-references currently known from other cataloging organizations, this doubled die obverse variety emerged from the Denver Mint's unprecedented 1964 Lincoln cent production. The 3,799,071,500 cents struck at Denver that year were part of a coordinated national effort to address the coin shortage that had disrupted commercial transactions across the country, and the production volume necessitated an extraordinarily large number of working dies. The multi-impression hubbing process used to create each obverse die involved pressing the working hub into the die blank under hydraulic force multiple times, and the potential for fractional displacement between these impressions existed at every session. When displacement occurred, it produced a doubled design image that became an indelible characteristic of that specific die, reproduced on every cent struck during the die's service life. WDDO-022 captures one of these hubbing anomalies from the Denver production line. The scale of 1964-D cent production means that the surviving population is enormous — billions of coins in various states of preservation, from circulated examples found in pocket change to uncirculated rolls preserved by collectors and dealers. Yet only a tiny fraction of this population has ever been examined under the magnification necessary to detect doubled die varieties, leaving substantial discovery potential for patient variety hunters. The 1964-D cent was the last Denver Mint issue to carry a mint mark before the three-year removal period. Struck on a 3.11-gram, 95% copper and 5% tin-zinc planchet.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Ed Fletcher Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1964-D 1¢ WDDO-022
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References