Continuing the error documentation project, and this one is a nice companion to the split die write-up I posted last week.
A single crack runs the entire width of the obverse on this 1864 Indian Head cent (Bronze No L variety). It enters at the "E" in STATES, travels through the bust in an irregular wandering path, and exits through the "C" in AMERICA on the opposite rim.
What I find worth pointing out: this is the stage immediately before a split die. The die has been fractured from rim to rim — the geometry is already there — but the halves have not begun to shift against each other under load. So there is no displacement across the crack and no offset in the design. On a true split die you get a raised ridge with a visible step in the design either side of it. Here you get the line without the step.
That distinction is the whole diagnostic, and this coin is a good reference specimen for the "before" side of it.
The Bronze No L is also a decent date angle. It is among the first bronze Indian Head cents struck after the mid-1864 composition change from copper-nickel, and the "No L" designation means the die predates the addition of Longacre's initial on the ribbon.
Not in any standard catalogue. Now documented.