1956-D Doubled Die Obverse DDO-004

Description

Medium spread south on BERTY of LIBERTY and the eyelid distinguishes DDO-004 as a notable variety on the 1956-D Lincoln wheat cent — one of the final years before Frank Gasparro's Memorial reverse replaced the wheat ears design in 1959. VarietyVista catalogs this under UVC-1883 and DMR-025, documenting three die stages: Stage A in early die state (unconfirmed), Stage B with both obverse and reverse at mid die state, and Stage C in late die state (unconfirmed). The comment "Solid 6 hub" refers to a specific hub characteristic where the loop of the numeral 6 in the date is completely closed rather than open, a hub variety that helps narrow the die's origin within the production sequence. Denver struck approximately 1.1 billion wheat cents in 1956, an enormous output that generated vast numbers of working dies and proportional opportunities for hub doubling events. Medium-class doubling on BERTY — the right portion of LIBERTY, omitting the initial LI — creates a partial-word diagnostic where the affected letters show clearly separated secondary impressions while the unaffected LI appears normal. This partial coverage helps distinguish DDO-004 from other 1956-D doubled dies that may affect the complete LIBERTY inscription. The eyelid doubling provides portrait-level confirmation, complementing the inscription evidence with facial feature displacement. The twenty-fifth die marriage reference (DMR-025) indicates extensive documentation of 1956-D Lincoln cent die pairings, reflecting the thoroughness of VarietyVista's cataloging efforts across this high-mintage date.

Die Markers

• UVC-1883
• DMR-025
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Obverse and Reverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Harry Ellis.
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References