CU-1C-1939-01 Cud

Description

Cataloged as the first documented cud on the 1939 Philadelphia Lincoln Wheat Cent, CU-1C-1939-01 represents a major die break at the rim — the kind of catastrophic failure where an entire section of the die face fractures and separates, leaving a raised, featureless mass of metal on the struck coin. The 1939 cent was produced in the standard pre-war bronze composition of 95% copper with 5% tin and zinc, a relatively soft alloy that generally absorbed striking pressure without excessive die stress. Philadelphia's output of over 316 million cents that year, however, meant that individual dies endured enormous production runs, and prolonged use inevitably pushed working dies past their fatigue limits. Cuds develop progressively: hairline stress cracks form first, sometimes producing a retained cud where the fractured piece remains loosely in place, before the fragment detaches entirely and leaves the characteristic blank plateau on subsequently struck coins. As the inaugural catalog entry for this date, CU-1C-1939-01 anchors the sequence of six known cuds from the 1939 Philadelphia cent. Documented by Cuds on Coins and cross-referenced as CU-1C-1939-01.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Fred Weinberg
• CU-1C-1939-01
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References