SKH-1c-2019-11 Spiked Head

Description

Immediately following its catalog neighbor, SKH-1c-2019-11 is the eleventh spiked head recorded for the 2019 Lincoln Shield Cent. Within a year that produced at least twenty-two such varieties, the eleventh sits near the midpoint — a position carrying no special significance in discovery order or rarity, since Cuds on Coins assigns numbers as varieties are submitted regardless of when the coin was struck. What matters is the cumulative picture: twenty-two distinct dies cracked at the portrait-rim junction over the course of 2019, each generating coins with a unique raised spike from Lincoln's head. Brenner's portrait, continuously in use since 1909, features Lincoln in profile with relatively high relief, particularly at the top of the head and along the brow. These are the zones where die cracks most commonly nucleate, because the corresponding die recesses concentrate stress during each strike cycle. Philadelphia's cent presses operated at high speed throughout 2019, feeding copper-plated zinc planchets through the coining chamber where obverse and reverse dies compress simultaneously. The result, millions of times over, occasionally includes a spiked head.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Robert Oney
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References