Blame it on the Night Shift: The 1955 Lincoln Double Die Penny

The 1955 Double Die Lincoln penny is easily the most famous double die coin in U.S. numismatic history. How did this dramatic error come about? Blame it on the night shift.

In the fall of 1955, there was a severe shortage of pennies in America. So, the Philadelphia Mint took extreme measures and struck coins for 24 hours a day, in two 12-hour shifts to help alleviate the penny shortage.

What Exactly Is A Double Die?

A double die error coin is produced during the die making process. Back in the 1950’s, in order to create a die, it required multiple impressions from a working hub to create the detail. If the hub or die shifted during this process, the final die would show two distinct impressions with separation between them.

That’s what happened for the highly prized 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent. The doubling is seen on every coin that was produced from that specific die.

What makes the 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent so intriguing to collectors is that the doubling on the obverse is  clearly seen by the naked eye. If you ever get your hands on one of these treasures, just take a look and you will see that the date 1955 and the motto LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST appear doubled. The coin’s reverse was made correctly and does not show any doubling.

Before a die was supposed to be used in production, no less than seven employees of the U.S. Mint were expected to review and approve the die. That clearly didn’t happen. And, the imperfect die was placed in the rotation for the midnight to 8 am shift.

Let Them Circulate!

By morning, it was estimated that anywhere from 20,000 to 24,000 of these Double Die Lincoln pennies were struck. The problem? These double die Lincoln pennies were mixed in with millions of other properly produced Lincoln cents produced on the overnight shift.

The Chief Coiner of the Philadelphia Mint, Sydney C. Engel, had to decide between letting the double die pennies go into circulation, or melt down about 10 million pennies. He decided to let the error coins circulate!

In the months that followed, 1955 Double Die Lincoln pennies began to pop up, especially in Boston, western Massachusetts and upstate New York. The majority of the Lincoln Double Die pennies were discovered in cigarette packs as change. Back then, vending machines were not able to dispense change like they can today. The vending machines only accepted quarters.

Since the pack of cigarettes cost 23 cents, two pennies were slipped inside the cellophane packaging of the cigarette pack to serve as the change to the customer.

An Exciting Piece of Numismatic History

Today, the 1955 Double Die Lincoln Cent is one of the most sought after coins in all of numismatics. Even though as many as 24,000 of these dramatic error coins were struck, survival estimates for grade 60 or better total a mere 1,200. You can see it here.

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