1964 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-010

Description

Among the growing catalog of 1964 Philadelphia doubled die obverse varieties, WDDO-010 occupies a position in the sequence that reflects the enormous scale of die production at the Mint that year. With 2,648,575,000 business strikes requiring thousands of individual obverse dies, each hubbing operation carried a small but nonzero chance of producing a doubled die — and the 1964 date has yielded dozens of confirmed varieties as a result. A doubled die obverse is created during the die manufacturing process when the hub — a positive master tool that impresses the coin design into working dies — is applied more than once with a slight shift between impressions, leaving a secondary ghost image in the die steel. No specific cross-references, expert attributions, or die markers have been published for WDDO-010, which means collectors must rely on direct comparison against Wexler reference photographs to confirm the variety. The absence of documented die markers does not diminish the variety's validity; it simply indicates that the die surfaces were relatively clean of the scratches, gouges, and cracks that provide additional attribution shortcuts on other varieties. Identification should focus on the standard diagnostic areas where hub doubling manifests most clearly on Lincoln cents: the letters of LIBERTY, the motto IN GOD WE TRUST, the four date digits, and the fine details of Lincoln's ear, hair, and bow tie. Struck at Philadelphia on a 95% copper, 5% tin-zinc planchet weighing 3.11 grams at 19mm diameter.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Wexler Team

External References