SKH-1c-1972-02 Spiked Head

Description

Attributed on the same date as SKH-1c-1972-01 — March 22, 2016 — by the Cuds on Coins team, SKH-1c-1972-02 is the second documented spiked head for the 1972 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent. This variety is cross-referenced to the James Corbin catalog as JCc-1972_088, placing it one number after Corbin's listing for SKH-1c-1972-01 (JCc-1972_87) and suggesting the two varieties were studied in sequence by the Corbin cataloging effort. The simultaneous attribution date for both the first and second entries indicates they were likely submitted together or processed as part of the same documentation session — a common pattern when an attribution service receives multiple examples from a collector who has been accumulating potential spiked heads for formal review. The diagnostic distinction between SKH-1c-1972-02 and its predecessor lies in the specific geometry of the die crack producing the spike: angle of projection from the head, width of the raised metal, length of the spike extension, and precise origin point on the portrait all differ between the two varieties because each represents a different physical obverse die that developed its own unique crack pattern. Spiked heads from the Philadelphia Mint's 1972 production document the stress patterns experienced by dies striking coins at high speed during one of the facility's highest-output years. Each variety in the catalog preserves evidence of how a specific die's crystal structure yielded to repeated mechanical stress, nucleating a crack at the predictable stress concentration of the portrait apex and allowing it to grow along a path determined by local metallurgical conditions unique to that particular piece of die steel.

Attribution History

• Discovered by JC Stevens
• Cross reference: JCc-1972_088. 03/22/2016.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References