CU-1C-1917D-09 Rim Cud

Description

Nine cataloged cuds from a single date and mintmark represents an unusually prolific record of die failure. CU-1C-1917D-09, the ninth documented rim cud for the 1917 Denver Lincoln Wheat cent, points to production conditions that pushed dies hard during the first year of American involvement in World War I. The United States declared war on Germany in April 1917, and demand for circulating coinage surged alongside military mobilization and wartime economic expansion. Denver struck 55.12 million cents that year, a figure requiring hundreds of die pairs and generating proportionally more opportunities for rim fractures. Each of the nine cataloged cuds for this date originated from a different working die, each failing at a unique clock position and producing a distinct fracture profile on the struck coins. The high catalog number reflects not inferior die steel but rather the sheer volume of dies consumed in meeting wartime output targets. CU-1C-1917D-09 stands near the top of the documented sequence, indicating that systematic searching of 1917-D cents has revealed an extensive pattern of die distress across the year's production.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• CU-1C-1917D-09
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References