1920 Lincoln Wheat Cent - CU-1C-1920-01 Cud

Description

Earliest documented cud on the 1920 Lincoln Wheat Cent, CU-1C-1920-01 preserves evidence of rim die failure from the post-World War I era when the Philadelphia Mint was resuming normal coinage operations after wartime production priorities. Philadelphia struck 310,165,000 cents in 1920, a robust output reflecting rising demand for small-denomination coinage during the economic transition from wartime to peacetime production. The cross-reference notation "CU-1C-1920-01; number: none. 09/20/1921" contains an intriguing date that appears to reference September 20, 1921 — potentially an early documentation date from just one year after the coins were minted, which would make this one of the earliest-documented cud varieties if the date reflects original attribution rather than a catalog entry date. Victor David Brenner's Lincoln portrait, introduced in 1909, had been in production for eleven years by 1920, and the obverse dies had reached a mature production standard with consistent hub quality across the Philadelphia facility. Cuds form when die steel separates at the rim, creating a raised featureless area where the broken section no longer imparts design detail to the struck planchet. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, CU-1C-1920-01 bridges the gap between the early Lincoln Cent issues of the 1910s and the more extensively documented middle years of the Wheat Cent era, providing die failure evidence from a period when mintage volumes were climbing steadily upward. This particular cud runs 3 o'clock to 4 o'clock on the obverse.

Cross References

• CU-1C-1920-01; number: none. 09/20/1921.

External References