1967 Lincoln Cent SKH-1c-1967-10 & 11

Description

This unusual combined listing documents two spiked head varieties — SKH-1c-1967-10 and SKH-1c-1967-11 — on the 1967 Lincoln cent, cataloged together because they share the same die or exhibit closely related characteristics that warranted joint documentation. Spiked heads form when die deterioration near Lincoln's portrait creates a crack or chip that captures planchet metal during striking, producing a raised spike or horn-like projection from the head on the finished coin. The combined designation of numbers 10 and 11 suggests either two distinct die stages of the same progressive crack (where the spike grew or changed shape between stages) or two very similar spikes from closely related die pairs that were deemed sufficiently connected to catalog as a single entry. The 1967 Lincoln cent occupies a historically significant position as the final year of the Coinage Act of 1965 no-mint-mark era: the cent carried no mint mark despite being struck at the Philadelphia Mint, and when production began in 1968, mint marks returned to all U.S. coin denominations for the first time since 1964. The 1967 business strike mintage of 3,048,667,100 cents was the largest of the three-year no-mint-mark period, and the massive die consumption inherent in producing over three billion coins generated extensive die deterioration, including the spiked heads, cuds, and die cracks cataloged across this date. Attributed by Cuds on Coins. Struck on a 3.11-gram, 19mm planchet of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

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