SKH-1c-2001-01 Spiked Head

Description

Inaugurating the spiked head catalog for the 2001 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent, this variety was documented by Cuds on Coins on August 8, 2018, marking the first confirmed die clash event for a date that has received relatively modest attention from the variety hunting community. The 2001-P cent was produced in massive quantities at Philadelphia — billions of coins requiring hundreds of die pairs — yet its spiked head catalog remains small, suggesting that the date has been underexplored rather than unproductive. Die variety research tends to concentrate on dates with established reputations for variety production, leaving adjacent years like 2001-P with less thorough coverage. The die clash mechanism that produced this inaugural spiked head is the same process documented across all Memorial Cent dates: the press cycles without a planchet, the Lincoln Memorial reverse contacts the obverse die, and the architectural features of the Memorial — twelve Doric columns, stepped base, classical entablature — transfer into the die surface. The resulting raised spike on Lincoln's portrait serves as the variety's diagnostic feature, and its unique position and angle distinguish this -01 entry from the -02 variety that would be cataloged four years later. First entries in any date's spiked head catalog carry particular significance because they confirm the date's participation in the die clash phenomenon and open the possibility of additional discoveries. Collectors searching 2001-P cents may find this -01 entry relatively scarce, as the specific die pair that experienced the clash event would have produced only a subset of the year's total output.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Jon Rhodes
• Cross reference: none. 08/08/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References