SKH-1c-1986-15 Spiked Head

Description

Closing the spiked head census for the 1986 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent at fifteen documented varieties, SKH-1c-1986-15 marks the final entry in one of the most extensive single-date spiked head compilations in the Lincoln cent series. Fifteen distinct working dies that cracked at the same structural weak point — the crown of Lincoln's portrait — constitute a remarkable dataset on die failure in high-volume coining. With Philadelphia's 1986 cent production exceeding 4.49 billion pieces, the die population required to sustain that output numbered in the thousands, and a fifteen-variety tally represents only the dies whose cracked-state coins were recovered, identified, and submitted for cataloging. The true number of dies that developed spiked heads during the year is almost certainly higher, as many cracked dies would have been pulled from service quickly or produced coins that were never examined by variety collectors. Preserving and storing spiked head specimens follows the same protocols as any Lincoln cent variety: inert holders, stable temperature and humidity, and avoidance of PVC-containing materials protect the copper plating from environmental degradation. For collectors who have assembled all fifteen varieties, the complete set documents the full range of crack angles and morphologies that the Lincoln portrait design can produce under production conditions. Struck at Philadelphia (no mint mark) on copper-plated zinc planchets (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) at 2.5 grams and 19mm.

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