1963-D Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-038

Description

Bearing the Wexler Variety ID 1963-D 1c WDDO-038, this Doubled Die Obverse of the 1963-D Lincoln Memorial Cent was attributed by the Wexler Team as part of the ongoing cataloging effort that has documented dozens of DDO varieties for this date. The 1963-D cent is one of the most intensively studied dates in the Lincoln Memorial series from a die-variety perspective, owing largely to its enormous Denver Mint production of 1,774,020,400 coins — a total that required the manufacture and deployment of hundreds of individual working dies. Each working die was produced through a hubbing process in which the design was transferred from a hardened working hub into a softer die blank, and any fractional misalignment between hub and die during this transfer created a doubled image that became a permanent feature of the finished die. WDDO-038 represents one such event. For the collector, distinguishing genuine hub doubling from the far more common die deterioration doubling and machine doubling is the essential first step in cherry-picking: hub doubling produces a clearly separated secondary image with its own distinct contour, while deterioration doubling appears as a flat, shelf-like widening of design elements and machine doubling shows a flat, shelf-like displacement in one direction. A quality loupe of at least 7x and a strong, adjustable light source are the fundamental tools for this work. No additional cross-references are currently known. The coin was struck on a 95% copper and 5% zinc planchet, the composition standard for Lincoln Memorial cents from 1962 onward.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1963-D 1¢ WDDO-038
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References