SKH-25c-2008P-01(AZ) Spiked Head

Description

Documenting a die clash on the final year of the 50 State Quarters program, this inaugural spiked head for the 2008 Philadelphia Mint Arizona State Quarter captures a variety from the program's closing chapter. Arizona was the forty-eighth state honored, its reverse featuring the Grand Canyon with a saguaro cactus and the inscription "Grand Canyon State" — dramatic desert imagery that contrasts sharply with the earlier state designs. When this reverse die clashed with the obverse without a planchet between them, elements of the Grand Canyon scene transferred into the obverse die and created a raised spike on Washington's portrait. The "(AZ)" designation identifies the specific State Quarter reverse within the 2008 production year, which also included Oklahoma, New Mexico, Alaska, and Hawaii as the program's final five honorees. A single documented spiked head for the 2008-P Arizona Quarter suggests that examination of this date has been limited, or that production conditions generated fewer detectable clash events than some earlier State Quarter dates. SKH-25c-2008P-01(AZ) was cataloged on October 1, 2020, by Cuds on Coins. The 2008 State Quarters hold end-of-series significance, as the program concluded its decade-long run of issuing five new designs annually — a run that fundamentally changed American coin collecting by engaging an unprecedented number of people in numismatics. Spiked heads from the program's final year carry a bookend quality, complementing the 1999 inaugural-year varieties that began the die clash documentation for this groundbreaking series.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Mike Durney
• Cross reference: none. 10/01/2020.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References