CU-1C-1966-06 Cud

Description

Completing the documented roster of 1966 Lincoln cent cud varieties, CU-1C-1966-06 is the sixth and final cataloged cud for this date in the Cuds on Coins reference. Six cuds for a single year is a notable count that underscores the production pressures placed on the Philadelphia Mint during the coin shortage era of the mid-1960s. The Coinage Act of 1965 had mandated the removal of mint marks from all U.S. coins, suspended proof set production in favor of Special Mint Sets, and altered the cent's composition — all in service of increasing coin production and discouraging hoarding. The 1966 mintage of 2,188,147,783 business strike cents was the highest annual output of the three-year no-mint-mark period and demanded a proportionally massive number of working dies, each subjected to hundreds of thousands of strikes at pressures exceeding 40 tons. Under these conditions, die rim fractures were a statistical certainty across the die population, and the six documented cuds for 1966 represent the fraction of those fractures that produced coins distinctive enough to be preserved, recognized, and cataloged by die variety researchers. A cud is created when a fragment of the die rim breaks away completely, leaving a void that fills with metal during striking. The raised, featureless protrusion on the finished coin bears no design detail, as the corresponding area of the die face is simply absent. Cross-referenced as CU-1C-1966-06 and attributed by Cuds on Coins. Struck on a 3.11-gram, 19mm planchet of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Jerry Long
• CU-1C-1966-06
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References