2010P-1DER-007T Trail Die Reverse

Description

Discovered by Albert Neils and documented in the Trail Dies catalog, the 2010P-1DER-007T is a trail die reverse variety found on the 2010 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Shield Cent — the inaugural year of the Shield reverse design. Trail dies represent a specialized class of die variety where a faint secondary impression of the design appears offset from the primary strike, created during die manufacturing, setup, or test procedures when an unintended secondary contact occurs between die components. Die marker documentation identifies Stage B at mid-die-state with an obverse die crack visible in the top portion of Lincoln's head between the words GOD and WE, and a reverse die chip on the edge of the shield above the E and P of PLURIBUS. The obverse die crack in Lincoln's head documents progressive structural failure in the portrait's high-relief area where deep recesses in the die steel create stress concentration points, while the reverse die chip on the shield edge represents localized metal fatigue at one of the design's raised boundary elements. The Lincoln Shield Cent was struck at the Philadelphia Mint in copper-plated zinc (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) weighing 2.50 grams with a 19.05 mm diameter, featuring Victor David Brenner's obverse portrait and Lyndall Bass's Union Shield reverse design introduced that year. The shield motif — thirteen vertical stripes beneath a horizontal scroll bearing ONE CENT — replaced the Lincoln Memorial reverse that had served from 1959 through 2008. As a first-year-of-issue variety, trail die events on 2010 Shield Cents hold particular interest for specialists documenting the die production characteristics of the new reverse design's early manufacturing period.

Die Markers

• Stage “B “, obverse is MDS – a die crack is seen in the top portion of Lincoln’s head in between GOD and WE.
• Reverse is MDS – a die chip is seen on the edge of the shield above the E and P of PLURIBUS.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Albert Neils
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References