CU-1C-1915D-01 Rim Cud

Description

Only four years after the Denver Mint began striking Lincoln cents in 1911, this 1915-D issue preserves a rim cud cataloged as CU-1C-1915D-01 — a marginal die break where a fragment of die steel fractured away at the rim, leaving a raised, featureless plateau on the struck coin. The Denver facility was still a relatively young branch mint during World War I, having opened in 1906, and its die shop operated under constraints distinct from Philadelphia's. Dies were manufactured at the mother mint and shipped westward by rail, a journey of several days that made rapid replacement impractical. When a die developed a rim crack during a production run, the economic calculus often favored continuing to strike rather than idling the press while awaiting a fresh die. The 1915-D cent carried a modest mintage of 22.05 million pieces, placing it among the lower-production Denver dates in the early Wheat cent series. CU-1C-1915D-01, as the first cataloged cud for this date and mintmark, documents a die failure from an era when branch mint infrastructure was still maturing.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Keith Christenson
• CU-1C-1915D-01
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References