PC-1c-1958-02 Pre-Cud

Description

Struck in the final year of the Wheat Ears reverse, PC-1c-1958-02 documents a retained die crack at the rim of a 1958 Lincoln Wheat Cent — one of the last coins to carry Victor David Brenner's iconic reverse design before Frank Gasparro's Lincoln Memorial replaced it in 1959. Pre-cuds record the intermediate stage of die rim failure where a crack has propagated from the edge of the die inward but the fractured segment has not yet broken away. Had the die continued in service, the cracked portion would eventually have separated, creating a void that would fill with planchet metal during striking and produce the raised featureless mass known as a full cud. The sequence number 02 indicates this is the second pre-cud cataloged for 1958 in the Cuds on Coins reference system, which systematically documents both pre-cuds and full cuds across all U.S. cent dates. The catalog code reads PC for pre-cud, 1c for the one-cent denomination, 1958 for the year, and 02 for the sequence. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint in bronze — 95% copper with 5% tin and zinc — at 3.11 grams. As a final-year Wheat Cent variety, this pre-cud carries the added numismatic significance of documenting die behavior from the closing chapter of one of America's longest-running coin designs, in production since 1909.

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