1990 Doubled Die Obverse DDO-001

Description

The 1990 Lincoln Memorial cent DDO-001 exhibits a medium spread on Lincoln's tie and vest with notching visible on the date, LIBERTY, and IN GOD — a combination of effects that places this among the more visually accessible doubled die obverses for the date. Doubled dies form during the hubbing process when the hub and working die are separated and then re-engaged with a slight misalignment, impressing a secondary image that shifts the design elements from their intended positions. The tie and vest area, which contains fine parallel lines of varying depth, is particularly sensitive to hub misalignment: even a slight shift produces noticeable thickening or separation of these closely spaced lines. The notching on the date numerals and LIBERTY letters represents a different manifestation of the same misalignment — the sharp serif edges of Victor David Brenner's lettering develop small shelf-like steps where the secondary impression offsets the character outlines. Cataloged as UVC-3313 and DMR-003 in the VarietyVista attribution system, this variety carries dual reference codes that aid cross-identification. The 1990 Philadelphia cent, struck without a mint mark from master dies that for the first time carried the mint mark at the master die stage, saw a production run of over 6.8 billion pieces — ample opportunity for hubbing anomalies to produce collectable doubled die varieties. Struck on a copper-plated zinc planchet (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) at 2.5 grams and 19mm diameter.

Die Markers

• UVC-3313; DMR-003

External References