1957 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-018

Description

Whaden Curtis attributed WDDO-018 on the 1957 Proof Jefferson Nickel, identifying very close Class II Distorted Hub Doubling on IN GOD WE TRUST, LIBERTY, the star, and the date — the full complement of obverse design elements on Felix Schlag's portrait side. The "very close" characterization indicates the secondary hub impression was only slightly displaced from the primary, producing doubled images that require careful examination under magnification to distinguish from die deterioration doubling or machine doubling. Obverse die markers include a die scratch near the rim above the second T of TRUST, while the reverse carries a die scratch above and to the right of the long left window and a die scratch above the small left window — markers positioned around the Monticello facade's architectural details. Cross-referenced as Wexler Variety ID 1957 WDDO-018 Proof, this variety belongs to the substantial catalog of proof Jefferson Nickel doubled dies from the late 1950s, when Philadelphia's proof production was climbing toward the million-set annual output that would characterize the early 1960s. Philadelphia struck 1,247,952 proof sets in 1957, and the eighteen documented doubled die obverses for this date reflect systematic searching across a population large enough to yield numerous hub doubling examples from the multiple proof die pairs required for that production volume.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Whaden Curtis
• Wexler Variety ID: 1957 WDDO-018 Proof
• Expert attribution by Whaden Curtis

External References