1948 Lincoln Wheat Cent - CU-1C-1948-02 Cud

Description

By 1948 the Lincoln cent had returned to its standard bronze composition — 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc — and CU-1C-1948-02 records a cud error on this restored alloy. The wartime and immediate post-war compositional experiments were over: no more steel, no more shell-casing brass, just the familiar bronze that Victor David Brenner's Lincoln portrait had been struck on since 1909. This moderate production level subjected dies to reasonable service demands, yet the second cataloged cud for the date confirms that rim fractures remain an inherent risk of the coining process. Standard bronze planchets are among the most die-friendly compositions in U.S. coinage — soft enough to deform plastically under striking pressure, cushioning the die against the recoil that destroyed steel cent dies in 1943. The cud produced by this fracture displays the warm copper tone characteristic of properly composed bronze cents. CU-1C-1948-02 is documented by the Cuds on Coins project and cross-referenced under its catalog designation.

Cross References

• CU-1C-1948-02

External References