1943 Steel Penny DDO Or Not? Off Center Strike Year?

Die deterioration. The die wear usually shows in the direction of the nearest rim. Keep in mind that this year they had steel planchets and steel dies. So the dies wore a lot faster that year because of not having copper planchets.

Yes. The devices near the rim start to show wear first and flow lines develop and more die wear shows next. I see all this on your coin.

Here are more examples of Die Deterioration Doubling. Notice how strong it is on the Steel cent. The zinc plated steel cent planchets of that year wreaked havoc on the dies. BTW, the Ghostly 4 is common for that year. Not sure of the cause. Interestingly, on the Steel cents, the 4 (when fully present) and the Mintmark almost always show far more doubling than the 3 where you'd expect it to be strongest.

Click Image To Enlarge

I would not say it necessarily hurts the value. If the coin is really nice it can still maintain good value. However, many coins in their later die states don't look that good compared to a high grade solid earlier die state. With that said, a lot of folks seem to like these doubled 43s even if for the wrong reason.

If you want to see a Very Early Die State (VEDS) coin -- one of the first off the dies, buy a Coin & Die set off of ebay. So long as the coin has not been swapped out -- you will be amazed at how nice they are. I purchased a number of these sets on ebay when they were going for around $12.50 each just to get the coin and so I could gather the certificates for the information they contain. Of course it's nice to own the die too! I think they go for about $40 now.