SKH-1c-2011-11 Spiked Head

Description

Collectors who systematically hunt Lincoln Shield Cents for die varieties find that spiked heads offer one of the most accessible entry points into error coin collecting. SKH-1c-2011-11, the eleventh such variety documented for 2011, exemplifies the steady production of these die failures across early Shield cent years. The mechanism behind every spiked head is consistent: repeated striking creates stress concentrations where Lincoln's high-relief portrait meets the die rim, and eventually a crack develops. That crack appears on finished coins as a raised line or spike projecting from Lincoln's head — sometimes upward, sometimes at an angle, depending on precisely where the fracture initiated. Matching the 2011 count to the 2010 total of at least eleven cataloged spiked heads suggests a roughly comparable rate of die failure across the two years. Philadelphia's cent production during this period ran into the billions, meaning each working die was expected to strike hundreds of thousands of planchets before retirement. The copper-plated zinc composition remained standard, and Bass's Shield reverse continued its second year of production. This variety is attributed by Cuds on Coins.

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