2004 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-001

Description

Light hub doubling on LIBERTY manifests as notches on the lower southwest serifs of the letters, accompanied by extra thickness on Lincoln's beard and the date — a combination of affected elements that spans both lettering and portraiture on the 2004 Lincoln Memorial cent. VarietyVista catalogs this as UVC-2487 with die marriage reference DMR-002, indicating it pairs with a specific reverse die. The serif notches are the primary visual diagnostic: where the letters' lower serifs should taper to clean points, the doubled impression creates a stepped or notched appearance visible under 10x magnification. Three die stages are documented — Stage A with both obverse and reverse at early-to-mid die state, Stage B at unconfirmed mid-die-state, and Stage C at unconfirmed late die state. As DDO-001, this is the lead entry in the doubled die obverse catalog for the 2004 date, typically indicating either the strongest doubling or the first variety discovered for the year. Philadelphia's 2004 cent production exceeded 3.3 billion pieces, and the pre-bicentennial 2004 date was the last full year of Frank Gasparro's Memorial reverse before the four 2009 Bicentennial designs. Collectors examining 2004 cents should focus on the lower left serifs of LIBERTY and the fine detail of Lincoln's beard where the extra thickness appears.

Die Markers

• UVC-2487
• DMR-002
• Stage A:
• Obverse and Reverse EMDS
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Billy Crawford
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References