SKH-1c-2007-02 Spiked Head

Description

Documented on July 17, 2017 by Cuds on Coins, the second spiked head for the 2007 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent was among the earlier discoveries for this penultimate Memorial reverse date. The 2007-P holds a poignant position in the Memorial Cent timeline — just one year remained before the Lincoln Memorial design would make its final regular-issue appearance — and its spiked heads represent some of the last varieties that would bear the Memorial's distinctive architectural transfer patterns. When the coining press cycles without a planchet, the obverse and reverse dies contact each other, and the Memorial's columns and entablature impress into the obverse die surface. The transferred elements create a raised spike on Lincoln's portrait, and the specific geometry of that spike — its position, angle, and length — serves as the diagnostic key for attributing individual varieties within the date's catalog. Two documented entries at this stage of the 2007-P catalog represented early progress in what would eventually grow to six confirmed spiked heads. Philadelphia's 2007 cent production generated billions of coins using hundreds of die pairs, and the two confirmed clash events at this point indicated that more discoveries were likely as additional material was searched. The -02 entry's unique spike characteristics differentiate it from the -01 variety and from the four subsequent entries that would be cataloged over the following year and a half, building a moderately sized catalog that documents die clash activity during the Memorial Cent's twilight years.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Laura McAdams
• Cross reference: none. 07/17/2017.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References