1964 Doubled Die Obverse WDDO-006

Description

Extending the doubled die obverse catalog for the 1964 Philadelphia Mint cent, WDDO-006 is a regular strike variety that adds to the documented hubbing anomalies from this monumental production year. Philadelphia's output of 2,648,575,000 business strike Lincoln cents in 1964 was itself a remarkable figure, though it was surpassed by the Denver Mint's 3,799,071,500 pieces — together producing over 6.4 billion cents in a single year as the U.S. Mint fought to overcome the nationwide coin shortage that had disrupted commerce and prompted congressional hearings. The doubled die obverse mechanism requires no malfunction in the coining press itself; rather, it originates entirely in the die shop, where the multi-impression hubbing process occasionally produced a fractional displacement of the working hub between successive impressions into the die blank. Once embedded in the die steel, the resulting secondary design image appeared on every cent struck from that die throughout its entire service life. No cross-references from CONECA, Coppercoins, or Crawford are currently listed for WDDO-006, and no die markers have been cataloged, placing this variety among those that require direct comparison with Wexler reference photographs for confident attribution. The absence of documented die markers does not diminish the variety's validity — it simply indicates that the die may have entered service without distinctive surface features beyond the doubling itself. Struck on a 95% copper and 5% tin-zinc planchet at 3.11 grams and 19mm diameter.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Wexler Team

External References