2000D-1DER-001WS Trail Die Reverse

Description

Documented by the Trail Dies catalog, the 2000D-1DER-001WS is a trail die reverse variety found on the 2000 Denver Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent. Trail dies represent a specialized class of minting variety where a faint secondary impression of the coin's design appears offset from the primary image, caused when the die receives an unintended secondary contact during the die manufacturing, installation, or initial setup process — distinct from hub doubling, which occurs during the deliberate die-making hubbing procedure. The die marker documentation identifies this specimen at Stage "B" in mid-die-state (MDS), with the obverse showing a small die gouge to the left of the 2 in the date and a small die gouge to the bottom right of the bowtie on Lincoln's portrait. The reverse, also in MDS, displays a die dot in the upper left of bay 9 of the Memorial building and a possible die clash visible in bay 10 — the potential clash mark suggesting this reverse die may have experienced a die-to-die impact event in addition to the trail die anomaly, documenting multiple die events on a single working die. The Lincoln Memorial Cent was designed by Frank Gasparro for the reverse and Victor David Brenner for the obverse, struck in copper-plated zinc composition (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) weighing 2.50 grams with a 19.05 mm diameter. The Denver Mint produced billions of cents in 2000, creating a large working die population across which trail die events, though individually uncommon, could statistically occur. Trail die varieties are systematically cataloged by the Trail Dies reference and form a distinct collecting specialty within the error and variety community, with each variety's die markers providing the attribution fingerprint that confirms specific die identification.

Die Markers

• Stage “B”, Obverse is MDS small die gouge to the left of the 2 in the date. Small die gouge is seen to the bottom right of the bow tie.
• Reverse is MDS – die dot in the upper left of bay 9. Possible die clash is seen in bay 10.

External References