SKH-1c-1972-08 Spiked Head

Description

Following a thirteen-month gap after the clustered January 2017 attributions, SKH-1c-1972-08 was documented by the Cuds on Coins team on February 14, 2018 — resuming the documentation of spiked head varieties for the 1972 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent after an extended quiet period. No cross-references to other attribution services have been established. The year-long interval between the seventh and eighth attributions represents a natural pause in the discovery cycle: the collectors most actively searching 1972-P cents for spiked heads had likely exhausted their immediate inventory by early 2017, and new material needed to be acquired and examined before additional varieties could emerge. The February 2018 date coincides with a period of renewed activity in the 1972-D spiked head catalog as well, suggesting a broader wave of collector interest in 1972 spiked heads across all mints during early 2018. SKH-1c-1972-08 documents an eighth distinct obverse die from the 1972 Philadelphia production that developed the characteristic portrait-apex fatigue crack. For the attribution team, confirming this as a new variety rather than a die-state variant of one of the seven previously documented entries requires careful comparison of the spike's specific geometry — its angle of projection, length, width, curvature, and precise origin point — against all existing reference imagery. Each genuine new variety represents a different piece of die steel with its own failure story.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Bob Byrd
• Cross reference: none. 02/14/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References