1963-D Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-008

Description

The eighth cataloged Doubled Die Obverse for the 1963-D Lincoln Memorial Cent, WDDO-008 contributes to what has become one of the deeper doubled die rosters in the entire Lincoln cent series. Denver's 1963 cent production of 1,774,020,400 pieces demanded an extraordinary throughput of working dies, and each die's multi-impression hubbing process presented repeated opportunities for the fractional misalignments that produce doubled die varieties. While the sheer number of documented 1963-D WDDO varieties might suggest that individual examples are common, the opposite is typically true: each variety originates from a single die that struck only a portion of the total mintage, and survival rates depend on how many coins from that die were preserved rather than entering circulation and eventually being lost to wear, damage, or melting. Collectors evaluating potential WDDO-008 candidates should inspect the date, IN GOD WE TRUST, and LIBERTY under magnification, looking for separation lines, notching, or shelving that indicates a genuine hub-doubled impression rather than the flat, shelf-like displacement of strike doubling or the mushy, spread appearance of die deterioration doubling. Precise attribution requires matching both the doubling characteristics and the die markers — the individual scratches, gouges, and crack patterns unique to this particular die — against published references. The coin was struck on the 95% copper and 5% zinc composition that had been the Lincoln cent standard since the removal of tin from the alloy in 1962, bearing Brenner's obverse and Gasparro's reverse.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Wexler Team

External References