SKH-1c-1959D-03 Spike Head

Description

Third spike head variety documented for the 1959-D Lincoln Memorial cent, SKH-1c-1959D-03 was cataloged by the Cuds on Coins service on a coin from the inaugural year of Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse design. The 1959 production year represents a watershed moment in United States cent coinage — the wheat ears reverse that had served since 1909 was retired, and Gasparro's depiction of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. took its place, establishing the design that would continue through 2008. Denver struck approximately 1.28 billion cents in 1959, a substantial first-year production for the new reverse. Victor David Brenner's obverse portrait, unchanged across the reverse transition, continued to generate the same die failure types it had produced throughout the wheat cent era — including spike heads at the crown of Lincoln's head. The spike head phenomenon depends entirely on the obverse die geometry, where the stress concentration at the top of the incuse portrait cavity creates a vulnerability to fatigue cracking, making it independent of which reverse design is paired with the obverse. As the third documented spike head for the 1959-D issue, SKH-1c-1959D-03 demonstrates that this die failure mode transitioned seamlessly from the wheat cent era into the memorial cent era without interruption. Collectors of first-year-of-design issues may find particular interest in die varieties from 1959, as they document the manufacturing experience gained during the initial production of the new Memorial reverse. Detection requires standard examination of the area above Lincoln's head under 5-10x magnification, looking for the characteristic raised protrusion that breaks the expected smooth contour of the portrait silhouette.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Matthew Campbell
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References