CU-1C-1965-02 Cud

Description

Designated CU-1C-1965-02, this is the second documented cud variety for the 1965 Lincoln cent, providing additional evidence of die rim failures across the massive 1965 production run at the Philadelphia Mint. A cud forms when a section of the die rim fractures and the broken fragment either falls away or is ejected from the press, leaving a void in the die face that produces a raised, unstruck area on every subsequent coin struck from that die. The size, shape, and location of the cud on the finished coin depend entirely on the geometry of the die break — a small chip at one o'clock on the die produces a correspondingly small cud at seven o'clock on the coin (since the die produces a mirror image). The 1965 production environment was particularly demanding: the Mint was under enormous pressure to increase output and alleviate the national coin shortage, and the 1,497,224,900 business strike cents produced that year required an extraordinary number of die pairs. Each business strike die served approximately 250,000 to 500,000 impressions before retirement, and the cumulative fatigue from hundreds of thousands of high-pressure strikes made rim fractures an inevitable occurrence across the die population. Cross-referenced as CU-1C-1965-02 and attributed by Cuds on Coins. This variety is distinguished from CU-1C-1965-01 and CU-1C-1965-03 by the specific position, size, and shape of the cud along the rim. Struck during the first year of the Coinage Act of 1965 era, when all mint marks were removed from U.S. coins. Struck on a 3.11-gram, 19mm planchet of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Geoffrey Noe
• CU-1C-1965-02
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References