2008 Doubled Die Reverse WDDR-001

Description

Holding the primary DDR attribution for the 2008 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent, WDDR-001 documents a hub misalignment that produced visible doubling on the reverse design during the final year of Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse. The Memorial reverse, in continuous service since 1959, would be replaced by four rotating bicentennial designs in 2009 celebrating the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, making the 2008 cent the terminal issue for a reverse type that had served for exactly fifty years. This end-of-era status has drawn die variety researchers to ensure comprehensive documentation of the final Memorial Cent production years. The doubled die reverse mechanism involves misalignment between successive hub impressions during working die preparation, transferring a secondary design image that manifests as spread, extra thickness, or notching on the reverse inscriptions and the Lincoln Memorial building facade. As WDDR-001, this variety represents either the most significant or the first-documented doubled die reverse for the 2008-P date — the lead entry in the catalog that establishes the attribution reference point. The 2008-P cent was struck on copper-plated zinc planchets at Philadelphia, which produced over 2.55 billion cents that year — an enormous mintage that consumed vast numbers of working dies and ensured that hub misalignment events occurred with statistical regularity. The Memorial's twelve visible columns, steps, and surrounding inscriptions provide the design elements where doubling is detected, and the architectural geometry of the building offers precise reference lines for measuring the magnitude and direction of hub displacement.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Wexler Team

External References