2003 Doubled Die Reverse DDR-006

Description

Cataloged by VarietyVista under UVC-3002 and DMR-009, this 2003 Lincoln Memorial Cent DDR-006 displays medium spread west manifesting as an extra column #7 from the hand to the knee and from the knee to the shin, along with an extra knee — a particularly descriptive doubled die feature where the westward hub displacement created phantom architectural and figurative elements within the Lincoln Memorial's interior. The presence of both an extra column segment and an extra knee documents how the doubling affected both the building's columns and the seated Lincoln statue simultaneously, creating multiple displaced elements visible within the Memorial's colonnade. Three die stages are documented: Stage A shows both reverse and obverse in early die state (EDS); Stage B is mid-die-state with a die crack running northeast from upper column #4 accompanied by a light die crack on Lincoln's forehead on the obverse; and Stage C is late die state (LDS, unconfirmed). Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse, with its detailed rendering of the seated Lincoln statue visible between the twelve columns, creates some of the most visually interesting doubled die varieties in the entire Lincoln Cent series because the architectural colonnade provides regular geometric reference lines against which displaced elements are immediately apparent. The 2003 Lincoln Memorial Cent was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in copper-plated zinc composition (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) weighing 2.5 grams with a 19.05 mm diameter. Victor David Brenner's obverse portrait continued from the 1909 original. The extra knee feature is particularly noteworthy because doubling on the Lincoln statue's anatomy — as opposed to the surrounding architecture — adds a figurative element to what is otherwise a geometrically defined doubling pattern among the columns.

Die Markers

• UVC-3002
• DMR-009
• Stage A:
• Reverse and Obverse are EDS
• Stage B:
• Die crack Northeast from upper column # 4 – MDS
• Light die crack on forehead – MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Dennis Fisher
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References