SKH-1c-1983D-06 Spiked Head

Description

Numbered sixth in the spiked head registry for the 1983 Denver Lincoln Memorial cent, SKH-1c-1983D-06 records yet another independent die crack extending upward from Lincoln's head — confirming that this failure mode was a recurring pattern across multiple dies in Denver's 1983 production. Each census entry represents a physically distinct die, verified through careful comparison of the spike's position, angle, and width as well as ancillary die markers that fingerprint the specific die. The frequency of spiked head varieties on 1983-D cents is a natural consequence of the enormous production volume at Denver that year, which required cycling through hundreds of obverse dies under demanding press conditions. Die steel, despite its hardness, is subject to metal fatigue, and the geometry of Lincoln's portrait creates a natural stress riser at the crown of the head where the deep relief of the hair transitions abruptly to the flat die face. This geometric discontinuity concentrates the repetitive striking forces, making upward-propagating cracks from this point statistically more likely than cracks originating from smoother transitions elsewhere on the die. The copper-plated zinc planchet fills each crack uniformly, and the spike appears as a raised copper-toned line continuous with the portrait. Attribution by Cuds on Coins.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Alan English
• Cross reference: none. 03/20/2019.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References