CU-1C-1967-02 Cud

Description

Designated CU-1C-1967-02, this is the second documented cud variety for the 1967 Lincoln cent — the final year that U.S. coins were struck without mint marks under the Coinage Act of 1965. A cud forms when progressive metal fatigue causes a fragment of the die rim to fracture and separate from the die body, leaving an open cavity that fills with planchet metal under the enormous striking pressure of the coining press. The result is a raised, featureless mass on the finished coin whose shape corresponds precisely to the geometry of the missing die fragment. The 1967 cent holds a unique place in Lincoln Memorial Cent history: its business strike mintage of 3,048,667,100 was the highest of the entire three-year no-mint-mark period, surpassing both 1965's 1,497,224,900 and 1966's 2,188,147,783. That staggering output required thousands of working die pairs, and the relentless production pace pushed many dies far beyond their normal service life, increasing the probability of rim fractures across the die population. When mint marks returned to all U.S. coins in 1968, the no-mint-mark experiment ended, but the cuds and other die failures from 1965—1967 remain as tangible records of the era's unprecedented production demands. Cross-referenced as CU-1C-1967-02 and attributed by Cuds on Coins. Struck on a 3.11-gram, 19mm planchet of 95% copper and 5% zinc.

Attribution History

• CU-1C-1967-02; none.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References