SKH-1c-2023-06 Spiked Head

Description

Sixth spiked head documented for the 2023 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Shield Cent, extending the die clash record for this very recent production year. The 2023-P represents the fourteenth consecutive year of the Union Shield reverse design, and spiked head varieties have been documented annually without exception since the design's 2010 debut — a streak that underscores how deeply embedded the clash phenomenon is in modern cent production. When a planchet fails to feed and the dies contact each other, the Shield reverse's bold vertical and horizontal elements transfer into the obverse die, creating a spike on Lincoln's portrait that persists until the die is either serviced or replaced. Six spiked heads from the 2023-P indicates that die clash events continued to occur at rates consistent with prior years, maintaining the pattern established over the previous thirteen years of Shield Cent production. Each variety is distinguished by unique spike characteristics. SKH-1c-2023-06 is cataloged by Cuds on Coins. The near-real-time documentation of spiked heads on current-year coinage reflects the modern hobby's capacity for rapid cataloging, with collectors examining freshly released coins and reporting discoveries to centralized databases within months of a coin's production date.

Attribution History

• Discovered by William (Bill) W
• Cross reference: none. 09/07/2024.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References