CU-1C-1939-02 Cud

Description

Among the handful of die break varieties recorded for the Depression-era 1939 Lincoln cent, CU-1C-1939-02 documents a cud error — a raised, featureless blob at the coin's rim created when a chunk of the die face broke away completely. Unlike minor die cracks that leave thin raised lines across a coin's surface, a cud obliterates design detail over the affected area, replacing portrait elements or lettering with a smooth, shapeless plateau. The bronze planchets used for 1939 cents were softer than the steel dies that impressed them, but after hundreds of thousands of strikes, metal fatigue in the die itself became the weak link. Philadelphia struck these cents without a mintmark, as was standard practice for the mother mint, and the high production volume of 316 million pieces meant that die failures accumulated across the year's production run. Collectors seeking cud errors on wheat cents from this period value them both as dramatic visual errors and as evidence of the Mint's production pressures during the late 1930s. Documented by the Cuds on Coins project, this variety is cross-referenced as CU-1C-1939-02.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Fred Weinberg
• CU-1C-1939-02
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References