1997-D Doubled Die Reverse WDDR-019

Description

Attributed by the Wexler Team as Wexler Variety ID: 1997-D 1¢ WDDR-019, this doubled die reverse on the 1997-D Lincoln Memorial cent shows a bar extending from the upper hand of the Lincoln statue to the middle of the right leg, positioned on the seventh column. The statue-area doubling is diagnostic, but the reverse die markers provide equally important attribution details: a die scratch runs from the upper right of the T in UNITED to the rim, a small die chip sits on the right-side center of the second U in UNUM, and a die scratch appears to the upper right of the D in UNITED. No obverse die markers have been noted, placing the entire attribution burden on the reverse features. Memorial reverse doubled dies that manifest as extra bars or column distortions in the statue area result from hub displacement affecting the recessed interior of the building design, where even slight positional shifts create visible linear artifacts against the precisely parallel column spacing. The Denver Mint's 1997 cent production exceeded 4.5 billion pieces, an astronomical volume that consumed thousands of working dies and made DDR varieties statistically inevitable despite modern quality controls. Collectors searching for WDDR-019 should focus on the seventh column area and confirm the three reverse die markers for positive attribution.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Steve Young Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1997-D 1¢ WDDR-019
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References