1955 Lincoln Wheat Cent - PC-1c-1955-09R Pre-Cud

Description

Ninth pre-cud cataloged on the reverse of the 1955 Lincoln wheat cent by the Cuds on Coins attribution service, PC-1c-1955-09R documents an early-stage die rim fracture where the steel has cracked from rim to rim but the enclosed section is still part of the die body. The systematic designation breaks down as PC for pre-cud, 1c for the one-cent denomination, 1955 for the date, 09 as the sequential catalog number, and R indicating the reverse die carries the fracture. The 1955 wheat cent holds a unique place in numismatic history as the date of the famous 1955 doubled die obverse — one of the most dramatic and valuable die varieties in American coinage — but pre-cuds represent an entirely different category of die failure unrelated to hub doubling. Victor David Brenner's wheat reverse design, featuring two wheat stalks flanking the legends ONE CENT and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, was in its forty-sixth and penultimate year of production before Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial reverse replaced it in 1959. Pre-cuds develop when the repeated outward pressure of striking metal into the die's recessed design elements creates stress fractures at the die rim, where the transition from the design cavity to the collar interface concentrates mechanical force. At the pre-cud stage, the fracture manifests as a thin raised line on struck coins following the crack path, without the raised plateau or blank lump that characterizes retained cuds or full cuds. The existence of nine cataloged reverse pre-cuds for the 1955 date demonstrates the scale of die failure documentation achieved by the Cuds on Coins attribution service. Collectors should examine the reverse rim under 10-15x magnification for hairline raised lines that follow a crack pattern from the rim and back to it.

External References