DC-1c-1995D-01 Die Chip

Description

Cataloged as the first die chip for the 1995 Denver Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent, this variety documents a raised bump created by the loss of a small die fragment during production. When a tiny piece of the die face separates — whether from fatigue, localized stress, or a material defect — the resulting void fills with metal during striking to produce a raised feature on the coin that mirrors the shape of the missing fragment. The 1995-D date is historically notable in Lincoln Cent collecting because of the famous 1995 Doubled Die Obverse (DDO-001), one of the most dramatic modern doubled dies in the entire series. While that high-profile variety dominates collector attention for 1995, the die chip varieties document the more routine forms of die deterioration that occurred across the many die pairs used during regular production. Denver struck approximately 7.1 billion cents in 1995, one of the highest cent production years in Mint history, and the enormous volume of dies consumed across that output made die chips a statistically frequent occurrence. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins with no known cross-references, DC-1c-1995D-01 establishes the first cataloged die chip entry for this date and mint. The "01" designation means this was the first die chip formally documented, though more certainly exist undiscovered among the billions of surviving 1995-D cents.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Pete Apple
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References