RIDB-1c-1953D-03 Retained Interior Die Break

Description

Completing the trio of retained interior die breaks for the 1953-D Lincoln Wheat Cent, RIDB-1c-1953D-03 stands as the third documented instance of this uncommon failure type from Denver's 1953 production. Three RIDBs from a single date-mint represents one of the densest concentrations of interior die fractures in the Wheat Cent census — a clustering pointing toward production-specific factors at Denver that year. Retained interior die breaks differ from rim cuds in both mechanics and scarcity: the interior die face is thicker and better supported, making central-field fractures statistically less probable. When an interior break occurs and the fragment stays retained, the resulting raised area presents an irregular, often asymmetric shape reflecting the random fracture geometry of the die steel. Denver produced 700.515 million cents in 1953, and three distinct interior breaks from that output provides researchers a meaningful sample for studying this error type across dies from the same facility and period. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this final entry closes the 1953-D RIDB sequence.

Attribution History

• Discovered by JC Stevens
• Cross reference number: none. 09/21/2019.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References