SKH-10c-1954-03 Spike Head

Description

Third in the spiked head census for the 1954 Roosevelt silver dime, SKH-10c-1954-03 documents another instance of die cracking at the portrait boundary on John R. Sinnock's obverse design. Cataloged by the Cuds on Coins attribution service with the standardized naming format — SKH for spiked head, 10c for dime, 1954 for date, and 03 for the third variety — this entry expands the growing inventory of die failure events on this mid-1950s silver issue. Philadelphia struck approximately 114.24 million Roosevelt dimes in 1954, a substantial production volume during the series' silver composition era (90% silver, 10% copper) that pushed working dies through extensive service life. Spiked head varieties develop when the die steel fractures along the high-stress boundary between Roosevelt's raised portrait and the recessed field, creating a crack that fills with planchet metal during striking and produces a raised spike-like projection on the finished coin. The spike's character — its length, direction, and thickness — depends entirely on the specific fracture geometry within the die, making each spiked head variety unique despite sharing the same general mechanism. Three cataloged spiked heads for the 1954 date suggests this issue saw sufficient die usage to generate multiple independent cracking events across different working dies during the production year. First listed on September 19, 2017, this variety contributes to the broader documentation effort that tracks die failure patterns across the Roosevelt dime series, providing evidence of how die longevity and stress distribution affected production quality at the Philadelphia Mint during the mid-1950s. Collectors hunting for spiked heads should examine the perimeter of Roosevelt's portrait under moderate magnification with oblique lighting that casts shadows along any raised anomalies extending into the field.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• Cross reference: none. 09/19/2017.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References