US Doubled Die Lincoln Cent (with Poor Man's) 1955

A 1955 doubled die obverse (DDO) Lincoln cent is one that was struck by the US mint with a major error in the striking process. These coins are worth a bundle today: thousands of US dollars for a nice example like the one in the picture (see values below). A 1955D cent, minted in Denver and thus carrying a small letter D as a mint mark, is worth about $0.10 according to the catalogs - essentially the face value of one cent.

If you have a true 1955 doubled die Lincoln cent, there are several steps you should take to establish and preserve its value. These steps include authentication, grading, and encapsulation. We recommend PCGS, NGC, ANACS, or ICG for this. Look these up on the Internet. Do not use other services.

DO NOT CLEAN YOUR COIN. CLEANING RUINS VALUE.

Coin presses used by the mint rely on two important parts, called dies, to slam coins out of a pieces of raw metal. The pieces of raw metal are called planchets, and the dies strike the planchets with such force that the images imprinted in the dies transfer directly to the planchets, forming the coins. Sometimes the dies bounce a little as they strike a planchet. This results in minor imperfections in the coin called 'machine doubling' or 'strike doubling.' Coin collectors are not interested in this type of doubling because it is very common, so such coins carry no premium value for collectors.

However, something that is valuable to coin collectors is a doubled die. What happens with a doubled die is that the mint makes an error when they are making the dies, not when they are making the coins. Errors on the dies show up as errors on the coins. This can happen when the 'master die' is used to create a die. Coins are almost never made from just a single die over a year, as the dies wear out after so many thousand or million strikes and must be replaced.

Since over 300 million 1955 cents were made, they probably went through a lot of dies. And a single one of these dies had this famous error: a giant mistake was made in the obverse (heads side) die. The die was formed twice, once in normal position, and a second time in a slipped position. The pattern on the die, specifically the letters and the numbers, repeated twice, giving a rotated and offset look. This has happened on many other coins, but the 1955 Lincoln doubled die is a real *doozie*!!!

Because the error is so strong, and because the resulting coins look so different than normal, collectors eagerly seek these pieces and the price goes way up.

Hope you have one!

Each coin truly stands on its own merits depending on eye-appeal, but the catalogs do provide these very approximate values for genuine 1955-DDO wheat cents.

1955 DDO CENT WITH FULL DOUBLING
worn: $1000 approximate catalog value
average circulated: $1400
well preserved: $2000
fully uncirculated: $4000

Exquisite, beautiful, fully uncirculated specimens have sold at auctions in the past at prices beyond ten thousand dollars.

Once in a while you see a 1955 Lincoln cent advertised as a Poor Man's Doubled Die. These coins show a slight bit of deformation around the date and the word LIBERTY which sales people interpret as doubling. Perhaps it is doubling, but it is far from the dramatic doubling on a full 1955-DDO cent.



The Poor Man versions make great hole fillers for Lincoln cent collections. As such, they command marginal collector premiums, as follows

1955 CENT POOR MAN'S DOUBLED DIE
worn: $1 approximate catalog value
average circulated: $2
well preserved: $5
fully uncirculated: $15
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