1941-D Doubled Die Obverse DDO-005

Description

Light spread on the R of LIBERTY with extra thickness extending across RTY identifies this fifth cataloged doubled die obverse for the 1941-D Washington Quarter, struck in 90% silver at the Denver Mint during the final full year of peacetime before America's entry into World War II. The doubling originated during die manufacture when the working hub impressed the die with slight misalignment between passes, embedding a doubled image that transferred to every quarter struck from this die. VarietyVista cataloged this variety with die tracking codes UVC-0190 and DMR-006 across three progressive die stages: Stage A shows the obverse in Early Die State while the reverse is already in Late Die State — an unusual pairing that suggests the reverse die saw significantly more use or was already worn when paired with this obverse. Stage B transitions to Mid-Die State, though this remains unconfirmed, and Stage C reaches Late Die State, also unconfirmed. The Stage A observation that the reverse was already LDS when the obverse was EDS is diagnostically important, as it implies this obverse die may have been a replacement die paired with an older reverse die partway through the production run. John Flanagan's Washington Quarter design, adopted in 1932, was approaching its tenth year when this die was manufactured.

Die Markers

• UVC-0190
• DMR-006
• Stage A:
• Obverse is EDS
• Reverse is LDS
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Lee Hiemke
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References