2014 (P) Lincoln Shield Cent - SKH-1C-2014-01 Spike Head

Description

SKH-1C-2014-01 is a spike head die crack for the 2014 Philadelphia Lincoln Shield cent. The Lincoln Shield cent obverse retains the essential elements of Victor David Brenner's original 1909 portrait, with refinements accumulated through over a century of production, while the reverse features Lyndall Bass's Union Shield design introduced in 2010. Spike heads form through the characteristic mechanism of fatigue cracking at the crown of Lincoln's head, where the fine hair detail creates stress concentration points in the die steel. As a working die cycles through hundreds of thousands of strikes, micro-cracks initiate at these stress risers and propagate outward through the field, eventually reaching the die surface and creating a recessed channel that produces the raised spike on struck coins. Identification requires only low magnification — typically 3-5x — focused on the area above Lincoln's hairline.

Cross References

• SKH-1C-2014-01

External References