SKH-1c-2011D-01 Spiked Head

Description

Representing the sole cataloged spiked head from the 2011 Denver Mint Lincoln Shield Cent, this variety highlights the scarcity of D-mint entries compared to the much more extensively documented Philadelphia production. The 2011-D Shield Cent was only the second year of the new reverse design at Denver, and die variety documentation for early Shield Cent D-mint dates remains relatively sparse. The Union Shield reverse — featuring vertical lines symbolizing the thirteen original colonies bound by a horizontal band — creates distinctive geometric impressions when it contacts the obverse die during a press cycle without a planchet. These impressions produce the raised spike on Lincoln's portrait that characterizes spiked head varieties. Denver's cent production in 2011 generated billions of coins, yet only this single die clash event has been confirmed and cataloged, suggesting either limited searching of 2011-D cents or genuinely lower clash frequency at the Denver facility. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins on January 2, 2019, this variety stands alone as the representative of Denver's 2011 spiked head production. The D mintmark on the obverse provides unambiguous facility identification, distinguishing this coin from the presumably larger number of Philadelphia spiked heads for the same year. Collectors who specialize in Denver Mint Shield Cent varieties regard lone entries like this one as particularly desirable, since their solitary status within a date's catalog often correlates with greater difficulty in locating examples for collections.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Mike Durney
• Cross reference: none. 01/02/2019.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References