SKH-10c-1945D-01 Spiked Head

Description

A spiked head variety on the final Denver Mint Mercury Dime, the SKH-10c-1945D-01 documents die chip deterioration in the last year of Adolph A. Weinman's iconic design — the Mercury Dime was replaced by the Roosevelt Dime in 1946 following President Franklin D. Roosevelt's death in April 1945. The 1945-D Mercury Dime thus represents one of the last opportunities for the spiked head phenomenon to occur on this design, as the Liberty cap that creates the die vulnerability would not appear on the Roosevelt Dime's lower-relief portrait. Spiked heads form when the die steel at the apex of the winged Phrygian cap — the deepest cavity point — develops a chip that allows metal to flow into the void during striking. The 1945-D was produced at the Denver Mint as World War II drew to a close, and wartime production pressures continued to drive high coinage volumes through the final months of the conflict. Attributed by Cuds on Coins with a catalog date of January 2021 — a relatively recent documentation that demonstrates varieties continue to be discovered decades after a coin was struck. The terminal-year status of the 1945 Mercury Dime gives this spiked head added significance as a die failure on the design's concluding production, connecting thirty years of Mercury Dime die variety history to its final chapter.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Jeff Ylitalo
• Cross reference: none. 01/27/2021.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References