1965 Variety WWHO-001

Description

Representing a distinctly different level of the die manufacturing hierarchy, this 1965 Kennedy Half Dollar doubled working hub obverse (WWHO-001) documents hub doubling that occurred during the creation of the working hub itself — one step earlier in the production chain than the more commonly documented doubled die varieties. In the Mint's die production process, a master die creates a master hub, which creates working hubs, which in turn create working dies that actually strike coins. A doubled working hub (WWH) event occurs when the master die and working hub are misaligned during one of the impressions needed to transfer the design, and this doubling is then inherited by every working die made from that hub — and consequently appears on every coin struck from any of those dies. This multiplicative effect means WWHO varieties can potentially appear on a much larger population of coins than a doubled die variety, which is limited to the output of a single working die. The Wexler variety identification is 1965 50c WWHO-001, documented by the Wexler Team. The 1965 Kennedy Half Dollar was produced during the SMS era without mint marks, using the new silver-clad composition that replaced the original 90% silver of 1964. As the primary WWHO listing for 1965, this variety establishes an important datum point in understanding die production anomalies at the hub level for the early Kennedy Half Dollar series. Hub-level doubling varieties are considerably less commonly cataloged than die-level varieties, making WWHO entries particularly significant for researchers studying the complete die manufacturing process.

Attribution History

• Wexler Variety ID: 1965 50¢ WWHO-001
• Expert attribution by Wexler Team

External References