1942 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-005

Description

Medium spread on the date with rotational spread on LIBE of LIBERTY and IN marks DDO-005 on the 1942 Philadelphia Lincoln Wheat Cent, the final year of standard bronze composition before the emergency 1943 zinc-coated steel cents replaced copper for wartime conservation. Die markers under UVC-1522 and DMR-007 document three stages: Stage A with both obverse and reverse at Early Die State, Stage B with both at Mid Die State, and Stage C at Late Die State (unconfirmed) — two confirmed stages providing a solid foundation for die state collecting. Philadelphia struck 657,796,000 cents in 1942, a massive output driven by wartime economic expansion that increased demand for small change. VarietyVista cataloged this as the fifth doubled die obverse for the 1942 date, noting the rotational spread on LIBE of LIBERTY and IN — a pattern indicating the hub pivoted during secondary impression, creating a curved displacement vector that varies in both direction and magnitude across the die face. The combination of medium date spread with rotational lettering spread confirms a complex hub displacement event that cannot be explained by simple linear shift. Victor David Brenner's Lincoln portrait, by 1942 in its thirty-fourth year of production, continued generating die varieties that document the manufacturing processes of a design produced under wartime production pressures and accelerated die schedules.

Die Markers

• UVC-1522
• DMR-007
• Stage A:
• Obverse and Reverse are EDS
• Stage B:
• Obverse and Reverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by James Wiles
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References