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The 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cent is one of the most popular and important anomalies on the American numismatic scene. Courtesy of PCGS Trueview. Click image to enlarge.

Perhaps the most eye-catching of all coin varieties are those that exhibit doubling of parts or all of the image. Some varieties exhibit doubling of one or more numerals in the date. Others display doubled bust and relief features. Still others provide doubling of one or more letters of the legend, motto, or denomination.

The 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cent, arguably the most popular error coin ever produced by the U.S. Mint, features dramatic doubling in all three of these areas: every numeral of the date; the eyelid, lips, and nose; and every letter of “LIBERTY” and “IN GOD WE TRUST.” So how did the Mint (accidentally) create this die-design error that virtually launched variety collecting?

All coins produced by the United States Mint are struck by dies made of steel. By the 1950s, one pair of dies could strike between 500,000 to 750,000 coins before wearing down or breaking. Considering 330,958,200 Lincoln Cents were made at the Philadelphia Mint in 1955, this meant hundreds of obverse and reverse dies were needed for the task.

Enter the hubbing process. The first dies are created by cutting the exact final size of the obverse or reverse design into the end of a steel bar. This steel bar, called the master hub, is then placed into a hydraulic press opposite a cone-shaped piece of steel. When squeezed together using hundreds of tons of pressure, the image is transferred, or hubbed, into the piece of steel, which becomes the master die.

This master die, through the same hubbing process, was then used to hub the numerous working hubs that would, in turn, hub the hundreds of working dies needed to strike the Philadelphia-minted 1955 Lincoln Cents. Producing a sharp image on the master die, working hub, and working die, however, usually required each to be squeezed in the hubbing press at least two times.

When this 1955 obverse working die was being hubbed a second (or third) time, it was misaligned with respect to the working hub in the hubbing press, resulting in the rounded, counter-clockwise, secondary impression of the letters in “IN GOD WE TRUST,” “LIBERTY,” and the date. Known as Class I or rotated hub doubling, the pivot point of the rotation was near the center of the working die with the strength of the doubling determined by the degree of rotation.

The 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cent exhibits drastic obverse doubling in the motto “IN GOD WE TRUST,” the legend “LIBERTY,” and the date. Courtesy of PCGS. Click image to enlarge.

Some 40,000 coins were struck with this obverse die. By the time these error coins were noticed, however, roughly 24,000 of them were already on their way for distribution in western Massachusetts, southern New York state, and the greater Boston area.

Today, it is estimated that about 5,800 to 6,000 exist. All authentic 1955 Doubled Die Lincoln Cents were struck from a single die pair, have the reverse die misaligned about 5% counterclockwise from the normal 180-degree rotation, and carry a faint vertical die scratch under the left horizontal bar of the “T” of “CENT.”