1961 Variety WWHO-002

Description

Recorded as the second Working Working Hub Obverse variety for the 1961 Lincoln Memorial Cent, WWHO-002 carries a spread towards the center on the letters of IN GOD WE TRUST that decreases in intensity from left to right. This graduated displacement is a hallmark of certain Class II distorted hub doubling events where the centripetal shift is not uniform across the design — the leftmost letters of the motto (I and N) exhibit the widest separation between primary and secondary images, while the rightmost letters (S and T) show progressively less displacement, tapering to near-imperceptible levels. A Working Working Hub Obverse variety originates at the hub stage of die manufacture rather than at the individual die level; the master die impressed the working hub with a slight misalignment, and that displaced image was then transferred to every working die sunk from the affected hub. Consequently, die markers for both obverse and reverse will vary among individual working dies produced from this hub, and attribution must be based on matching the characteristic left-to-right tapering spread on IN GOD WE TRUST rather than on any single die's specific scratches or gouges. Cataloged by the Wexler Team as 1961 1¢ WWHO-002 with no other known cross-references, this variety originates from the regular-strike Philadelphia Mint production of that year.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Various individuals Cross References: None known
• None known; Wexler Variety ID: 1961 1¢ WWHO-002
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References