Part IV. Die Errors:

Die Cracks:

Impact-Induced Die Cracks

Definition: Die cracks that form as the result of an impact.  This usually requires the die steel to be unusually brittle, as impacts generally do not cause the die face to suffer brittle failure.

Both of these 1983 cent dies struck an unidentified hard object prior to the strike that created this specimen.  The impact indented and scarred the obverse die without generating any cracks.  The reverse die was simultaneously indented and scarred, but it also developed an arcing rim-to-rim die crack and some minor radiating cracks.  Evidently the reverse die was slightly more brittle than the obverse die.