1948-D Repunched Mintmark WRPM-033

Description

Population estimates for individual RPM varieties are difficult to establish with precision, but the 1948-D Lincoln Wheat Cent's large original mintage ensures that any given working die — including the one bearing WRPM-033 — likely produced tens of thousands of coins before being retired. The Wexler Team attributed this variety under Wexler Variety ID 1948-D 1¢ WRPM-033, recording another die on which Denver's D mint mark shows diagnostic evidence of multiple punch applications. The surviving population of each variety depends on the die's production run, the circulation patterns of the resulting coins, and the attrition that seven-plus decades of handling, loss, and melting have imposed. For common-date postwar cents, the survival rate is high enough that examples of any given RPM can reasonably be expected to exist in collector hands or in unsearched accumulations, even if most remain unattributed. The challenge lies not in scarcity but in identification — locating a specific RPM among millions of superficially identical 1948-D cents requires systematic examination under magnification. No cross-references beyond the Wexler catalog are currently published for WRPM-033.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Brian Ribar Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1948-D 1¢ WRPM-033
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References