2011-1DER-012T Trail Die Reverse

Description

Discovered by Louis Schaeffer, this twelfth documented trail die reverse for the 2011 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Shield Cent shows light trails off the inside corners of the letters MERICA in AMERICA, with an offset direction of 170 degrees — placing the trailing nearly due south. Trail dies develop through progressive die wear that causes design elements to produce faint extensions beyond their intended boundaries, and letter interiors are common locations where trailing becomes visible because angular corners create natural stress points where directional metal flow concentrates. At Stage C late die state, the obverse shows advanced deterioration: a small gouge above the S in TRUST, a crack on Lincoln's forehead, and a crack through the hair traveling northeast toward the first T in TRUST. The reverse in late die state carries a small crack and die break on the upper left shield edge. The Shield reverse, introduced in 2010, replaced the Memorial design and features a union shield with vertical and horizontal stripes — a new design whose geometry created different trail die patterns than the architectural elements of the Memorial reverse.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Louis Schaeffer
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References