1987P-1DER-006T Trail Die Reverse

Description

Cataloged at a 350-degree offset, 1987P-1DER-006T on the 1987 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent presents one of the most steeply angled trail die bearings in the series — just ten degrees shy of due north, meaning the working hub shifted almost directly upward relative to the die face during the secondary hubbing impression, leaving ghost-like traces of design elements projected in that near-vertical trajectory. Trail dies form when a hub contacts the die more than once during the manufacturing process without perfectly re-registering, and this variety was discovered by Louis Schaeffer of Maryland, a prolific contributor to the trail die census. Stage A documentation places this die at the earliest recorded state of its production life: on the obverse, VLDS (very late die state) characteristics include heavy metal flow lines near the rim and a small die gouge below IN — a seemingly contradictory pairing with an early trail die stage that suggests the obverse die was already well worn when this particular reverse die entered service. The reverse exhibits EDS (early die state) features including a die crack in the upper part of bay 2 and another die crack on the upper part of column 3. These reverse cracks in early die state indicate structural weakness in the die steel itself rather than accumulated production fatigue. Struck at Philadelphia (no mint mark) on copper-plated zinc planchets (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) at 2.5 grams and 19mm, from the 1987 mintage of 4,682,466,931 cents.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Louis Schaeffer
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References