1944 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-002

Description

Second in the cataloged sequence of doubled die obverses for the 1944 Washington Quarter, DDO-002 shows light spread on the ERTY portion of LIBERTY — a partial doubling pattern where hub displacement affected only the rightmost letters. Cataloged by VarietyVista as UVC-0378 and DMR-003, this variety has been documented through Stage C, which exhibits a die crack across Washington's forehead and hair in late die state, with the reverse also in late die state. The forehead die crack provides a useful secondary attribution point, because progressive die cracks are unique to individual dies and help confirm identification when the light spread on ERTY alone might be ambiguous. Light spread varieties occupy an important position in the doubled die spectrum — they are more common than strong spread varieties because the smaller displacement was less likely to be detected during the Mint's quality inspection, allowing more such dies to enter production. The 1944 Washington Quarter was produced on 90% silver planchets during the final full year of World War II, and the multiple documented DDO varieties for this date reflect high wartime production volumes.

Die Markers

• UVC-0378
• DMR-003
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• Die crack across forehead and hair – LDS
• Reverse is LDS

Attribution History

• Discovered by John A. Wexler
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References