2023 (P) Lincoln Shield Cent - SKH-1c-2023-06 Spiked Head

Description

This is a spiked head documented for the 2023 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Shield Cent. 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 shows how routinely obverse dies crack into the bust in modern cent production. When a crack opens in the obverse die and runs from the rim into Lincoln's bust, metal fills it during striking, creating a spike on Lincoln's portrait that persists until the die is retired. 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.

Cross References

• Cross reference: none. 09/07/2024.

External References