CU-1C-1944-18 Cud

Description

Eighteenth and among the highest-numbered documented cuds for the 1944 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Wheat Cent, CU-1C-1944-18 records a rim-level die break from one of the most productive years in cent coinage history. The 1944 cent used planchets manufactured from recycled brass military shell casings, a wartime measure that put spent ordnance brass back into circulation as one-cent coins. Philadelphia's output exceeded 1.43 billion cents in 1944, an astronomical figure that required continuous die replacement throughout the year. Every die pair had a finite lifespan measured in hundreds of thousands of impressions, and the mechanical shock of each strike concentrated stress at the die rim where fatigue cracks eventually initiated. When a crack propagated through the rim and a section broke free, the die continued producing coins bearing a raised, featureless mass at the fracture site — the cud that collectors now seek. Eighteen documented cuds for 1944-P represents a significant catalog, though still fewer than the extraordinary count for 1943 steel cents. CU-1C-1944-18 is tracked by Cuds on Coins within the Lincoln Wheat Cents 1909-1958 series, and its relatively high sequence number indicates that the 1944-P date has been thoroughly researched by die break specialists over the decades since production.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Bigtallbill on ebay
• CU-1C-1944-18
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References