SKH-1c-1971D-11 Spiked Head

Description

Cataloged on December 12, 2017, SKH-1c-1971D-11 continues the remarkable accumulation of spiked head varieties for the 1971-D Lincoln Memorial cent. Attributed by Cuds on Coins, this eleventh entry demonstrates that die crack formation at Lincoln's head was not an isolated phenomenon on a few vulnerable dies but rather a systematic failure mode recurring across a substantial fraction of the hundreds of obverse dies employed during Denver's 1971 production campaign. The mechanics governing this pattern relate to die geometry: Lincoln's hair detail requires deep, intricate engraving in the die steel, and the resulting thin walls of metal between hair strands create stress risers where crack nucleation is energetically favorable. As a die accumulates strikes, cyclic loading drives these micro-cracks to grow, eventually reaching the surface and extending outward into the smoother field area where the crack manifests as the visible spike. Each spiked head die records a unique instance of this process — the same physics, applied to a die with its own individual metallurgical microstructure, producing a crack path that differs in every case. The collecting community's interest in spiked heads reflects this balance between systematic cause and individual expression.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Alan English
• Cross reference: none. 12/12/2017.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References