1960 Doubled Die Reverse DDR-005

Description

Medium spread on E PLURIBUS UNUM and the eagle with light spread on HALF DOLLAR characterizes DDR-005 on the 1960 Franklin Half Dollar, one of the later entries in a series that ran from 1948 through 1963 before giving way to the Kennedy Half Dollar. VarietyVista cataloged this under UVC-146 and DMR-013, documenting three die stages: Stage A at Early Die State (unconfirmed), Stage B with both reverse and obverse at Mid Die State, and Stage C with both reverse and obverse at Late Die State. Philadelphia struck 6,024,000 Franklin Half Dollars in 1960, a modest production that reflected declining collector interest in the denomination for circulation purposes combined with strong proof demand — the proof mintage of 1,691,602 represented a significant fraction of total output. John R. Sinnock's eagle reverse, adapted from a half dollar reverse he designed in 1916, provides the canvas where medium spread manifests most clearly on the E PLURIBUS UNUM motto positioned above the eagle and on the eagle itself, where feather detail creates multiple reference lines for detecting hub displacement. The light spread on HALF DOLLAR, positioned below the eagle, suggests the hub displacement diminished toward the lower portion of the die — a gradient consistent with Class V pivoted hub doubling or the trailing edge of Class I rotational spread. Both MDS and LDS stages have been confirmed, providing collectors with documented die-state benchmarks and indicating that this variety persisted through a substantial portion of the die's production life.

Die Markers

• UVC-146
• DMR-013
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Reverse and Obverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• Reverse and Obverse are LDS

Attribution History

• Discovered by Timothy Wissert
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References