1942 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-015

Description

Fifteenth obverse doubled die cataloged for the 1942 Lincoln Wheat cent by the Wexler Team, WDDO-015 manifests as an extra eyelid below Lincoln's normal eyelid — a doubling diagnostic found across numerous Lincoln cent DDOs where Victor David Brenner's carefully sculpted facial detail reveals even minimal hub displacement. Die markers provide essential secondary diagnostics: the obverse carries a small die gouge (dot) on the lower right of the bust truncation, while the reverse features a die scratch running through the letters of PLURIBUS to the first U in UNUM. These markers — particularly the reverse die scratch traversing multiple letters — provide a reliable fingerprint for confirming this specific die pair independent of the doubled eyelid. The Wexler Team cataloged this variety under Wexler Variety ID: 1942 1¢ WDDO-015, with no additional cross-references currently known. Philadelphia struck approximately 657.8 million cents in 1942, a wartime production year when Lincoln cent output remained high despite material constraints that would lead to the zinc-coated steel cent composition in 1943. The doubled eyelid diagnostic is compelling because it sits in one of the most scrutinized areas of the Lincoln portrait — the facial features around the eye — where collectors and graders routinely examine under magnification, increasing the likelihood of incidental discovery. The extra eyelid below the normal eyelid indicates the secondary hub impression landed slightly south of the primary, displacing the delicate eyelid engraving downward by enough to produce a visible secondary line. Collectors should examine Lincoln's eye area under 10-15x magnification, identifying the secondary eyelid line below the primary, then rotate the coin to check the bust truncation for the diagnostic dot and the reverse for the PLURIBUS die scratch to complete the attribution.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Adam Chambers Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1942 1¢ WDDO-015
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References