1965 Washington Quarter - RCD-25c-1965-01R Retained Cud

Description

The year 1965 marked one of the most consequential transitions in American coinage history — the replacement of 90% silver quarters with copper-nickel clad composition — and this Washington Quarter preserves a retained cud from the very first year of that new era. Cataloged as RCD-25c-1965-01R, this is the first documented retained cud on the reverse of a 1965 Washington Quarter, struck without a mint mark as part of the 1965-1967 policy of omitting mint marks to discourage hoarding during the silver-to-clad transition. The Coinage Act of 1965 authorized the new clad composition — a pure copper core sandwiched between outer layers of 75% copper and 25% nickel — and all three facilities struck coins without distinguishing marks. The shift to clad planchets introduced different metallurgical characteristics affecting die performance: the copper-nickel clad layers presented a harder striking surface than silver, potentially altering die wear and fracture behavior. A retained cud on a first-year clad quarter represents a die that fractured at the rim but whose broken fragment was held in place rather than falling out. No additional cross-references are listed.

Cross References

• Cross reference number: none. 04/01/2018.

External References