1997 Doubled Die Reverse WDDR-011

Description

Cataloged by the Wexler Team and cross-referenced as CONECA 5-R-VIII, this 1997 Lincoln Memorial cent reverse features a distinctive bar extending from the elbow to the knee area to the right of the seated Lincoln statue on the seventh column of the Memorial facade. This bar-type anomaly — a raised linear element not present on normal strikes — falls within the Class VIII designation, indicating a specific hubbing mechanism that produced this localized design artifact. Obverse die markers include small die chips present around the letters IN, along with crisscrossing die scratches in front of Lincoln's chin and mouth area. The reverse carries several small die chips on the statue's abdomen and chest, northeast of the statue's head, and to the right of the seventh column, with additional die chips above F and northeast of G in the Frank Gasparro designer initials FG. The 1997 Lincoln Memorial cent was struck at the Philadelphia Mint on copper-plated zinc planchets weighing 2.5 grams with a diameter of 19.05 mm. The Lincoln Memorial reverse, designed by Frank Gasparro and introduced in 1959, features the seated Lincoln statue visible within the Memorial's columned facade — a design element whose architectural detail and small scale make it particularly susceptible to visible anomalies from hub displacement. The extensive die-chip documentation across multiple locations on both obverse and reverse suggests this working die saw considerable production use, with the die chips accumulating progressively as metal fatigue and wear created surface fragmentation.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Daniel Griffin Cross References: CONECA: 5-R-VIII
• CONECA: 5-R-VIII; Wexler Variety ID: 1997 1¢ WDDR-011
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References