LDB4-1955S-017 BIE Die Break

Description

Seventeenth in the BIE die break census for the 1955-S Lincoln wheat cent, LDB4-1955S-017 documents a die chip variety from what would prove to be San Francisco's final year of cent production until the facility resumed coinage in the 1960s. San Francisco struck approximately 44.61 million cents in 1955, a relatively modest mintage compared to Philadelphia and Denver outputs, and the facility's smaller production runs generated fewer working die pairs — which is reflected in the lower BIE count for 1955-S compared to high-volume dates like 1957-D. The BIE phenomenon occurs when a small fragment of die steel breaks away from the area between the letters B, I, and E of LIBERTY on Victor David Brenner's obverse, creating a void in the die surface that fills with metal under striking pressure and produces a raised vertical bar on the coin. The 1955-S cent occupies an interesting position in numismatic history: it was the last S-mint cent before San Francisco's production hiatus, and it shares its year with the famous 1955 doubled die obverse cent struck at San Francisco — one of the most celebrated error coins in American numismatics. While the BIE variety is a fundamentally different type of error (a die deterioration artifact rather than a hub doubling event), the shared date adds contextual interest for collectors. Cuds on Coins assigned the LDB4-1955S-017 designation within their systematic cataloging framework that tracks BIE varieties across all Lincoln cent dates and mint facilities. Collectors should examine the LIBERTY area under 5-10x magnification, identifying the raised bar between adjacent letters and verifying that its surface texture matches the surrounding design — a hallmark of genuine die-origin artifacts.

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