1941-S Doubled Die Obverse DDO-001

Description

Carrying the benchmark DDO-001 designation for the 1941-S Lincoln wheat cent, this variety displays medium extra thickness on LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST with light extra thickness on the date. VarietyVista cataloged this variety under UVC-1508 and DMR-016, with three die stages documented: Stage A where both obverse and reverse surfaces are at early die state (confirmed), Stage B at mid die state (unconfirmed), and Stage C at late die state (unconfirmed). The EDS confirmation for Stage A ensures specimens exist preserving the variety at maximum die sharpness, with the extra thickness displayed at its clearest before any die wear could obscure the effect. San Francisco struck approximately 92.36 million Lincoln wheat cents in 1941, a pre-war production year when demand for small change was rising alongside the industrial mobilization that preceded America's entry into World War II in December. The comments identify the mintmark as MMS-004 (trumpet tail), indicating the S mintmark shows a specific misplaced mintmark variant characterized by a flared or trumpet-shaped terminal on one of the letter's serifs — a secondary attribution feature independent of the doubled die classification. Victor David Brenner's Lincoln portrait and the wheat ear reverse were in their thirty-second year of production in 1941, and the LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST inscriptions on the obverse arc around Lincoln's head in positions that readily reveal hub doubling. Medium extra thickness on these inscriptions indicates the secondary hub impression was close enough to the primary to merge partially, creating uniformly heavier letter strokes rather than separated secondary images, while the light thickness on the date suggests diminishing displacement magnitude in the lower obverse field. As DDO-001, this represents the benchmark variety for the date. Collectors should examine LIBERTY under 10-15x magnification and confirm the trumpet tail mintmark characteristic as a secondary identification point.

Die Markers

• UVC-1508
• DMR-016
• Stage A:
• Obverse and Reverse are EDS
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by James Wiles
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References