RRDC-1c-2020-01R Bisecting Rim to Rim Die Crack

Description

Cataloged as RRDC-1c-2020-01R by the Cuds on Coins attribution service, this variety documents the first bisecting rim-to-rim die crack identified on the reverse of a 2020 Philadelphia Lincoln Shield cent. Bisecting die cracks represent one of the most dramatic forms of die deterioration, where a fracture propagates entirely across the die face from one rim point to another, effectively splitting the die into two connected but structurally compromised halves. The RRDC designation (Rim to Rim Die Crack) distinguishes this variety from localized die cracks that terminate within the design field or from cuds that break away at a single rim section. Lyndall Bass's Shield reverse design, introduced in 2010 to replace Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse, features a union shield with horizontal and vertical lines that can both reveal and complicate the visual detection of bisecting cracks depending on the fracture's path through the design. Philadelphia struck approximately 3.38 billion cents in 2020, an enormous production run that consumed thousands of working die pairs and made die failures inevitable across the production year. The bisecting crack's path across the entire die face — entering at one rim position, traversing the shield design, and exiting at the opposite rim — documents a catastrophic structural failure where the die steel could no longer contain the accumulated stress of repeated striking. On the struck coin, this manifests as a raised line running from one edge of the coin to the other, following the crack's path through the reverse design elements. Collectors can readily identify bisecting die cracks by their rim-to-rim continuity, distinguishing them from shorter die cracks or die scratches that do not span the full diameter of the coin.

External References