1971 (D) Lincoln Memorial Cent - SKH-1c-1971D-20 Spiked Head

Description

SKH-1c-1971D-20 is a spiked head on the 1971-D Lincoln Memorial cent, recorded on January 4, 2018, the same date as SKH-18 and SKH-19. The significance extends beyond the 1971-D date itself into the broader understanding of die crack failure modes in U.S. coinage: this catalog constitutes a natural experiment in fatigue crack behavior, with twenty separate dies subjected to similar production conditions each developing head-area cracks whose individual geometries provide data points about how crack propagation varies across a population of nominally identical tools. The high mintage of the 1971-D cent means undiscovered specimens from each cataloged spiked head die likely remain in circulated populations, awaiting recognition by an attentive examiner.

Cross References

• Cross reference: none. 01/04/2018.

External References