THE TOP 15 WAVY STEP DIES

[wavysteps2003]

There are a lot of wavy steps, over 400, from 1986 till the present and starting a collection can seem daunting. That is the reason for this list, to give you a focal point on what are the best dies to collect.

These are my personal choices, the ones that I have found to be of the most interest, not only for the strength of the die, but also for its complexity. So without further ado, the list:

# 15. 2004, WSDDR-010 / 2004P-IDR-006. The reason for this choice, on a nice west shifted wavy step, was not due to the strength, but because it is coupled with a minor obverse doubled die (light notching can be seen on the upper left corners of RTY in LIBERTY). There is moderate, sharp step deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8 and strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2 and 3 making this die a major find.









# 14. 1993, WSDDR-032. This is an excellent, strong, west shifted wavy step with deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9. The light fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under column # 3 is the only element that prevents this die from appearing higher up on this list.





# 13. 1993, WSDDR-015 / 1993P-1DR-003. Another strong wavy step from 1993. This die has strong step deviation, without any offset angle (no shift), under columns # 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. There is also moderate fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 3 and 11.







# 12. 1994, WSDDR-005. Although not a particularly strong wavy step, I selected this die for its unusual die marker that more than likely end the die's life prematurely. Along with strong, west shifted step deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, this die has a fairly large retained die break, centered below Lincoln's statue. It also has strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2 and 3. I have yet to find this die woithout the die break.





# 11. 1992-D, WSDDR-002. This year has relatively few wavy steps, however, Bill Slaughter managed to find this particular die. There is strong step deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8 with moderate fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 1, 2 and 3.





# 10. 1993-D, WSDDR-002 / 1993D-1DR-003. Once again we visit 1993 for another strong wavy step, however, this one is from the Denver mint. The very strong step deviation, shifted west, can be seen under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8, as far down as the last step on the Lincoln Memorial building. There is also strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2 and 3.





# 9. 1987-D, WSDDR-001 / 1987-D, WDDR-001. Before a few days ago, until Chuck Daughtrey discovered a 1986-D, this was the earliest known wavy step that was cataloged, recognized as such by John Wexler and myself. Although not very strong, it still has significant step deviation, with no shift, under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8, with moderate fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2, 3, 10 and 11. Oddly enough, this die was produced a year after both Mints began "experimenting" with the single squeeze process.







# 8. 1995, WSDDR-015. The importance of this particular die is that it connects wavy steps and trails together as being one in the same anomaly. As you can see by the pictures, there is strong, but somewhat mushy, fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 1, 2, 11 and 12. The step deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8, is again very mushy, however, still definable. The southerly movement of the fluting lines and deviation is carried over into the designer's initals (as trails in a south direction), the bottom termini of the letters in AMERICA (as elongated points in again a southerly direction) and extra thickness in some of the letters in EPU. Also notice the strange notching on the letter C of AMERICA; this abnormality is one of the odder affects of trails. This is one of the more complex wavy step / trails dies or in fact Lincoln cent dies, and if found, would be a great entry into a doubled die collection even if that collection was void of this type anomaly.









# 7. 1999, WSDDR-001. This die has history behind it. Actually the fourth die found to have wavy steps, it confirmed that the other wavy step dies, one from 1994 and the other two from 2003, were not just flukes. This is a west shifted wavy step, with strong to moderate deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8. There is also strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2 and 3.





# 6. 2001, WSDDR-002. At first, this die does not look like it should be in the top 15, however, a closer examination shows why it has earned this spot. While the step deviation under columns # 5 and 6 seems light, one must look at the bottom step to appreciate the actual strength of this die. The humps on the bottom step are actual extensions of the columns down to this point, with the spacing between the humps equaling the spacing found between the columns. Notice also that the fluting line extension passes through the stylobate and shrubs and also ends at the bottom step. While there are other wavy step dies that do affect the bottom step, as this die does, none do it stronger.



# 5. 1995, WSDDR-005 / 1995P-1DR-001. This is an excellent wavy step with strong, non shifted deviation under columns # 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8. Fluting line extension, into the stylobate, is very strong, with some columns showing multiple extended lines. This is one of the few dies that exhibit extensions under just about all columns (except column # 9 in this case).







# 4. 1995, WSDDR-017. This is the most unusual die that is not perhaps as strong a wavy step as others, however, its complexity is deserving of this ranking. The step area under the columns is very mushy and does not show any definition, hence, no deviation can be seen. However, this may not be caused by an over worked die (even though I do estimate that this particular coin is a LDS), but may be a function of the die to hub movement during the die making procedure. Notice that there are fluting line extensions, into the stylobate, under columns # 11 and 12 which verifies its attribution. Also notice the extra thickness and "trails" on the designer's initials, very similar to what is seen on 1995, WSDDR-015 and 1994, WSDDR-001. If you will look at the picture of E PLURIBUS UNUM and notice the odd shapes that these letters have. In most cases, the normal flat or curved bottom to these letters has been distorted to odd notching and elongated points in a southerly direction. Also note that the tops of the letters are shifted to the north, but to a lesser degree. This would indicate that not only did the die move in just one direction, but snapped back in the opposite direction before finding its center point. This dual movement is also shown on the letters of AMERICA, especially the A and M, with their pointed termini, which in this case is agin due south, the same as the fluting lines and trails from the designer's initials. Not shown are the letters in STATES, that have small humps on the tops of the horizontal bars (the E and Ts especially), which indicate movement to the north. To date, only one of this die has been found and it was by Bil Slaughter.









# 3. 1994, WSDDR-001 / 1994, WDDR-001. This is the die that started it all off. First attributed by John Wexler in early 1995 and then again in 2000 by Ken Potter. It is a non shifted wavy step with strong to moderate step deviation under columns # 5, 6, 7 and 8. There is also strong, multiple fluting line extensions, into the stylobate, under columns # 11 and 12. Notice the similarities between this die, especialy the trails on the designer's initials, and 1995, WSDDR-015 and 1995, WSDDR-0017.





# 2. 1993-D, WSDDR-007 / 1993D-1DR-003. This is an exceptionally strong wavy step with moderate to strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12. There is also very strong step deviation under columns # 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 with some extensions reaching down to the last step. This is by far the strongest non-shifted wavy step to date.







And for the top spot, which should not be a surprise to anyone familar with wavy steps;

# 1. 1999, WSDDR-015 / 1999P-1DR-003 / 1995, WDDR-005. This is the strongest of the strongest wavy step die. To start, there is moderate to strong fluting line extension, into the stylobate, under columns # 2, 3, 10, 11 and 12. Normally with a west shifted wavy step, the fluting line extension is not seen under column # 4, however, in this die there is a single fluting line that runs down the flat surface that leads to the left urn (post). Also note that the first two corners on the right stylobate side have extensions in the same direction as the fluting lines. The step deviation is extremely strong with most of the bottom step being affected under columns # 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. There is also moderate step deviation under the left urn (post) and light step deviation under the right urn (post). If there were just one wavy stepto collect, this would be the one.








As time goes on and new dies are found, I will more than likely expand the list to 20 or 25 dies, but for the present, I believe that the dies presented are enough for a start. Of course, I am always open to any suggestion, comment or correction concerning this list or in fact, any wavy step or trails die.

I thank you for spending the time looking at this list and I do hope that this work is of value to you.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL

WAVYSTEPS2003 aka BJ Neff

[Earwig]

Great post hopefully ill find some of those

Eric

[Dick]

BJ, I have looked in vain for an example of the "wavy steps", for months, and have never seen one until you put up the list! I know what to look for, now! The first time thru, I noticed only one, or two. Now, having looked thru the list several times, I WILL spot one, if it has the mis-fortune to come into my grimy hands, "cuz it'l git flipped"! Thanks for such a valuable lesson! Dick

[murphy]

Having found one or two of those that you have listed, I can say that it is indeed a thrill to both find one and to have a list of them to refer to. It's great that the formost collector of wavy-step cents would put together a list of the strongest of them for us who would prefer maybe not to collect them all, but would get a kick out of owning some of the stronger examples of them. This is something solid to go by, that anyone can follow. Who wouldn't want to collect these monsters??? Thanks BJ!