1944 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-006

Description

Cataloged by VarietyVista with die markers UVC-1613 and DMR-007, DDO-006 on the 1944 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Wheat Cent exhibits a strong spread presenting as light hubbing south manifesting as an extra eyelid on Lincoln's portrait. The extra-eyelid diagnostic is one of the most visually compelling doubled die indicators on Lincoln Cents because the eyelid occupies a small, well-defined area where even modest hub displacement creates a clearly visible secondary line — essentially a second eyelid below (south of) the primary one, producing an unmistakable doubled appearance on the portrait's most detailed facial feature. VarietyVista's die stage progression documents three stages: Stage A at EDS (Early Die State, unconfirmed), Stage B where a large die chip develops east of the V.D.B. designer initials with the reverse reaching MDS (Mid Die State), and Stage C at LDS (Late Die State, unconfirmed). The Stage B die chip east of V.D.B. provides an excellent secondary diagnostic — it is independent of the doubling itself and serves as confirmation that the coin was struck from this specific working die. The 1944 Philadelphia Lincoln Cent was struck on shell-case brass planchets during the wartime composition period, with a mintage of 1,435,400,000 pieces — the highest single-year mintage in the entire Wheat Cent series. That extraordinary output demanded a massive population of working dies, and DDO-006 represents one die within that population that experienced a southward hub shift between impressions. The extra eyelid can be detected under magnification as low as 5x, making this one of the more accessible DDOs for visual confirmation among 1944 Philadelphia varieties.

Die Markers

• UVC-1613
• DMR-007
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Large die chip East of V. D. B. – MDS
• Reverse is MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Brian Ribar
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References