1945-S Doubled Die Obverse DDO-004

Description

Strong extra thickness on LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, the date, and the ribbon characterizes DDO-004 on the 1945-S Washington Silver Quarter — a wartime issue from the San Francisco Mint that carries the FS-102 Cherrypickers' Guide designation, confirming its significance for mainstream variety collectors. VarietyVista documented this under UVC-0572 and DMR-006, with three die stages: Stage A in Early Die State (unconfirmed), Stage B at Mid Die State (unconfirmed), and Stage C showing a die crack across the forehead and hair with another crack across the bust into the queue at Late Die State, with the reverse also at LDS. The reverse die is separately identified as MMS-004 featuring a Ball serif mintmark, adding a repunched mintmark dimension to what is already a notable doubled die obverse. San Francisco struck 17,004,001 Washington Quarters in 1945, all on 90% silver planchets, as World War II drew to its conclusion. The combination of strong doubling on four design elements — LIBERTY, motto, date, and ribbon — with the Ball serif RPM on the reverse makes this a particularly rich die marriage for attribution. Stage C die cracks traversing the forehead, hair, and bust area document advanced die fatigue that provides collectors with visible die-state diagnostics even without magnification on well-preserved specimens. The FS-102 listing, second only to FS-101 in the Fivaz-Stanton hierarchy for this date, signals that DDO-004 occupies a prominent position among 1945-S quarter varieties sought by cherry-pickers working through wartime silver coinage.

Die Markers

• UVC-0572
• DMR-006
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• MDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage C:
• Die crack across forehead and hair – LDS
• Die crack across bust into queue
• Reverse is LDS

Attribution History

• Discovered by Jose Cortez
• FS-102
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References