SKH-1c-1973D-11 Spiked Head

Description

The eleventh and most recently cataloged spiked head variety for the 1973 Denver Mint Lincoln Memorial cent, SKH-1c-1973D-11 was attributed by the Cuds on Coins team on October 10, 2024. No cross-references exist. This entry extends the 1973-D spiked head census to eleven documented dies — an exceptional total that places this date among the most prolific in the entire Lincoln Memorial cent series for portrait-apex fatigue failures. The October 2024 attribution date, arriving nearly a year after the tenth entry (December 2023), demonstrates that new varieties continue to surface even decades after the coins were struck and after years of systematic searching by the collector community. The 1973-D cent's combination of massive mintage, intensive die usage, and broad collector interest has created a uniquely well-documented record of this specific failure mode. Eleven spiked head varieties from Denver's 1973 production means that at minimum eleven separate obverse dies developed fatigue cracks at the portrait apex severe enough to produce visible spikes on struck coins — and the true number of dies that experienced some degree of apex cracking is almost certainly higher, since many would have been retired before the crack progressed far enough to leave an observable mark on coins. SKH-1c-1973D-11 represents the current endpoint of this ongoing documentation effort, though future discoveries remain possible as additional unsearched groups of 1973-D cents are examined by collectors. The catalog notably skips the -02 designation, meaning eleven entries span numbers -01 through -11 with only one gap.

Attribution History

• Discovered by William (Bill) W
• Cross reference: none. 10/10/2024.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References