1944-S Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-017

Description

Seventeenth in the documented sequence of 1944-S DDO varieties, WDDO-017 demonstrates that the San Francisco Mint's wartime cent dies were subject to hub doubling at frequencies that rival even the more voluminous Denver production of the same year. Under Wexler Variety ID: 1944-S 1¢ WDDO-017, the Wexler Team documented this variety as part of their exhaustive survey of Lincoln wheat cent die anomalies across all mint facilities and dates. San Francisco's 1944 output of 282,760,000 shell-case cents employed recycled military brass, a composition that produced coins with subtly different surface characteristics than pre-war or post-war standard alloy issues. WDDO-017, as a higher-numbered catalog entry, was identified after sixteen more visible or earlier-known doubled die obverses had already been documented for this date-mintmark. The doubling affects obverse design elements where the secondary hub impression deviated measurably from the primary, and attribution requires precise matching of the spread direction and affected features against the published Wexler reference diagnostics. With seventeen varieties spanning the full spectrum of hub doubling visibility, the 1944-S DDO catalog provides collectors with an unusually deep variety-hunting opportunity within a single affordable date. Wartime shell-case cents are plentiful in all grades, and their distinctive alloy composition — often identifiable by a slightly different color tone — makes date-mining through bags and rolls an engaging project for variety enthusiasts.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1944-S 1¢ WDDO-017
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References