LDB4-1983-007 Die Break

Description

The seventh die break cataloged at the LDB4 position within LIBERTY on 1983 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cents, LDB4-1983-007 documents a fatigue fracture in the thin wall of die steel between adjacent letter cavities. Cuds on Coins assigns Letter Die Break numbers sequentially within each positional category, so the "-007" suffix indicates six other dies from the 1983-P run developed breaks at a comparable position before this one was verified. The inter-letter walls in a Lincoln cent obverse die are among the narrowest features on the die face, making them inherently vulnerable to cyclic fatigue. Each strike drives the die into a planchet under several tons of force, and the thin walls flex with each cycle. Over thousands of strikes, microscopic cracks initiate at stress concentrations and grow incrementally until the wall fractures and a void forms. Planchet metal flowing into that void creates the raised BIE element collectors seek. The 1983 cent, weighing approximately 2.5 grams in its copper-plated zinc composition, was produced at Philadelphia in quantities exceeding 7.6 billion — a volume requiring a continuous supply of fresh dies and generating a rich catalog of die failure varieties. Attribution by Cuds on Coins.

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