1963 Doubled Die Reverse DDR-020

Description

With a strong spread visible on "UNITED STATES," "E PLU" of "PLURIBUS," and "ONE," plus notching on "OF AMERICA," the 1963 Roosevelt Silver Dime DDR-020 ranks among the more visually prominent doubled die reverses documented for this date. VarietyVista catalogs it under UVC-420 with DMR-027. The "notching" descriptor applied to "OF AMERICA" indicates a step-like doubling effect where the secondary image creates jagged edges on the letterforms rather than a smooth parallel spread — a visual artifact that can be particularly striking on the thin serifs of John R. Sinnock's reverse lettering. Three die stages are documented: Stage A in Early Die State is unconfirmed; Stage B shows both reverse and obverse at Mid Die State; Stage C in Late Die State is also unconfirmed. The 1963 Philadelphia Roosevelt Dime, with a mintage of 126,725,645, was the last standard-issue silver dime before the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated silver from circulation-strike dimes. Twenty documented doubled die reverses for this final silver-era date testifies to both the volume of die production and the thoroughness of collector examination — many variety researchers have focused particular attention on 1963 and 1964 coins as the closing chapters of silver coinage. The comments note that a specimen is needed for new color digital photography, indicating this variety was initially documented from older monochrome or lower-resolution images and awaits modern imaging for the reference files. For collectors, the strong spread characteristic makes DDR-020 one of the more readily attributable Roosevelt Dime varieties, accessible to those with standard magnification equipment.

Die Markers

• UVC-420
• DMR-027
• Stage A:
• EDS (unconfirmed)
• Stage B:
• Reverse and Obverse are MDS
• Stage C:
• LDS (unconfirmed)

Attribution History

• Discovered by Charles Bondurant
• Expert attribution by VarietyVista

External References