SKH-1c-2016D-05 Spiked Head

Description

Breaking the Philadelphia monopoly that dominates spiked head catalogs, SKH-1c-2016D-05 records a portrait-rim die crack on a Denver-struck Lincoln Shield Cent — identifiable by the D mintmark below the date. Denver spiked heads are considerably less common in the Cuds on Coins catalog than their Philadelphia counterparts, making any D-mint entry noteworthy. The fifth cataloged spiked head for the 2016-D cent demonstrates that the die cracking phenomenon is not facility-specific: both mints use essentially identical die steel, hubbing procedures, and striking parameters, so the same portrait-rim stress concentrations produce the same fatigue fractures regardless of geography. What differs is the cataloging pipeline — Philadelphia cents have historically received more scrutiny from East Coast roll searchers, while Denver's output circulates more heavily in the western United States. The 2016 Shield Cent was in its seventh year of production with Bass's Union Shield reverse, and Denver's D mintmark provides an immediate visual distinction from Philadelphia issues. Copper-plated zinc planchets at 19mm and 2.5 grams remained standard across both facilities.

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