1909 Lincoln Wheat Cent - VDB - CU-1c-1909-01 Cud

Description

Victor David Brenner's initials V.D.B. on the reverse make the host coin for this cud one of the most famous issues in American numismatics. The 1909 VDB Lincoln Cent was the first coin to bear a president's portrait, and Brenner's prominently placed initials provoked immediate public objection that led the Mint to remove them after only a few days of production. This first cataloged cud for the 1909 VDB cent documents die rim failure on a coin already prized for its historical significance, combining a celebrated design debut with mechanical evidence of die stress. A cud forms when a section of the die rim fractures and separates entirely, leaving a cavity that fills with metal during striking to produce a raised featureless mass at the coin's edge. The short production window for VDB cents means fewer die pairs were used compared to the full year's non-VDB output, making any die variety from this narrow run inherently scarcer in terms of the number of dies that could have generated such failures. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, CU-1c-1909-01 preserves a die deterioration event from the opening days of what would become the longest-running coin design in United States history.

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