1919 (S) Lincoln Wheat Cent - CU-1c-1919S-02 Rim Cud

Description

Struck at the San Francisco Mint during the aftermath of World War I, this second documented rim cud on the 1919-S Lincoln Wheat Cent preserves evidence of catastrophic die failure along the coin's rim. A rim cud represents the loss of part of the die's rim gutter: on the coin it appears as a raised interruption in the design rim that tracks the rim's course. The 1919-S cent was produced in a mintage of approximately 139 million pieces, modest by later standards but substantial for San Francisco's capacity at the time. San Francisco's "S" mint mark distinguished these coins from the higher-mintage Philadelphia issues, and the mechanical stresses of sustained production runs gradually weakened die rims until fracture occurred. Two documented rim cuds for this date indicates that at least two separate dies experienced complete rim failure during the 1919-S production run. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this variety demonstrates that die rim failures were a routine consequence of early twentieth-century minting operations, where die steel metallurgy and heat treatment processes had not yet achieved the longevity standards of later decades.

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