CU-1C-1985-13 Cud

Description

The Philadelphia Mint's 1985 cent production of approximately 5.65 billion pieces required an extraordinary number of die pairs operating across multiple coining presses simultaneously. CU-1C-1985-13 on the 1985 Lincoln Memorial cent emerged from this massive production infrastructure. At typical die life expectancies of 500,000 to 1,000,000 impressions per die, Philadelphia would have consumed roughly 6,000 to 11,000 obverse dies and a similar number of reverse dies during the 1985 production year. Each of these dies was a potential candidate for cud formation, yet only 30 confirmed cuds have been cataloged for the date — a ratio suggesting that cuds occurred on considerably less than one percent of dies used. This low incidence rate reflects both the quality of die steel and the Mint's maintenance protocols, where press operators monitored die condition and replaced failing dies before catastrophic fractures occurred. Some cuds may have been caught during quality control, with affected coins removed from production, further reducing the number reaching circulation. The 30 documented varieties therefore represent the subset that both occurred and escaped into the coin supply. Struck on copper-plated zinc planchets at 2.5 grams and 19mm from the 1985 mintage.

Attribution History

• Discovered by John Shields
• CU-1C-1985-13
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References