SKH-1c-1950-16 Spiked Head

Description

Sixteenth in the spiked head sequence for the 1950 Lincoln wheat cent, SKH-1c-1950-16 captures a die clash variety from early in the decade that would see the wheat cent design reach its conclusion. The Korean War had erupted in June 1950, eventually driving demand for military metals though not to the extent that would require the dramatic planchet composition changes seen during World War II. Philadelphia's production of approximately 272.6 million cents in 1950 consumed working die pairs at a steady rate, and the regularity of die clashes — evidenced by at least 16 spiked head varieties for this single date — reflects the high-speed, high-volume nature of modern coin production. Each die clash event occurs when the obverse and reverse dies make contact without a planchet between them, and the impact can transfer design features from one die face to the other. Near Lincoln's head, transferred reverse elements — typically portions of the wheat ear stalks that frame the ONE CENT denomination — create depressions in the obverse die that strike up as raised projections on coins. The 1950 Philadelphia cent was struck on standard bronze planchets weighing 3.11 grams, in the composition that would remain unchanged through the end of the wheat cent series in 1958. Victor David Brenner's obverse and reverse designs had served since 1909, creating over four decades of production history that variety researchers have mined exhaustively. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this sixteenth spiked head variety invites comparison with the other 15-plus spiked heads documented for the same date, and collectors can distinguish between them by the precise position, angle, and extent of the spike visible under 10-15x magnification near Lincoln's head.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Earl M
• Cross reference number: none. 01/20/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References