2008P-1DER-006WS Trail Die Reverse

Description

Documented by the Trail Dies catalog and discovered by Aisha Shahid, the 2008P-1DER-006WS is a trail die reverse variety found on a 2008 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Memorial Cent — one of the final Memorial Cent issues before the design was replaced by four bicentennial reverses in 2009 and the Shield reverse in 2010. Trail die varieties occur when a working die receives an unintended secondary impression during manufacturing or setup, creating a faint offset ghost of the design on every coin struck from that die. The die marker documentation identifies Stage "B" at mid-die state, with the obverse showing a light die crack extending from Lincoln\'s eyebrow into his forehead — a fracture through the high-relief facial features where stress concentrations develop during repeated striking. The reverse, also at mid-die state, displays a small die crack over the top of column 2 in the Memorial colonnade and a small die dent on the inside of the O in ONE. The column crack provides a precise architectural reference point for die state identification, as each of the Memorial\'s 12 columns occupies a specific position that can be unambiguously designated. The Lincoln Memorial Cent was designed by Frank Gasparro for the reverse and Victor David Brenner for the obverse. Struck in copper-plated zinc (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) weighing 2.50 grams at 19.05 mm diameter, the 2008 Philadelphia issue was the penultimate year of this classic reverse design that had served since 1959. Shahid\'s discovery contributes to the documentation of trail die events across the Memorial Cent\'s final production years, a period when accumulated knowledge of trail die identification led to increasingly systematic detection.

Die Markers

• Stage “B“, obverse is MDS – a light die crack is seen from Lincoln’s eyebrow into his forehead.
• Reverse is MDS – a small die crack is seen over the top of column 2. A small die dent is seen on the inside of the O in ONE.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Aisha Shahid
• Expert attribution by Trail Dies

External References