1946-S Doubled Die Obverse DDO-004

Description

San Francisco resumed standard cupro-nickel production in 1946 after four years of the wartime 35% silver alloy, and DDO-004 captures a light hub doubling event from that transitional year. The spread affects LIBERTY, the five-pointed star, and the date on Felix Schlag's obverse portrait of Thomas Jefferson. VarietyVista catalogs this die under UVC-832 with die marriage reference DMR-014, linking the obverse to a reverse that carries the MMS-002 "Trumpet Tail" mintmark style — a specific S mintmark configuration distinguished by a decorative tail extension that mintmark specialists use to trace die lineages. With a mintage of approximately 13.6 million pieces from the San Francisco facility, the 1946-S nickel falls on the lower end of production for the series in that era, lending additional scarcity to any documented die variety. Light-class doubling on the star and date requires careful magnification under oblique lighting; the spread on LIBERTY's letter edges provides the most accessible diagnostic starting point. DDO-004 sits among several obverse doubled dies cataloged for the 1946-S, each originating from a distinct working die that received a misaligned secondary hub impression during manufacture.

Die Markers

• UVC-832; DMR-014

External References