CU-1C-1985-22 Cud

Description

Statistical frequency analysis of cuds in high-mintage years reveals patterns relevant to understanding CU-1C-1985-22 on the 1985 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent. The 1985 Philadelphia mintage of approximately 5.65 billion cents was among the highest annual outputs for any single mint facility. Despite this enormous production volume, only 30 cuds have been cataloged — a frequency of roughly one documented cud variety per 188 million coins struck. This ratio understates actual cud occurrence because not all cud coins survive to be examined by variety specialists: many are spent at face value without inspection, others are damaged beyond recognition, and some cuds on dies may have been detected by Mint quality control before significant quantities entered circulation. Still, the documented rate provides a baseline for comparing cud frequency across dates. Years with lower mintages but similar or higher cud counts suggest either more aggressive die usage, different die steel batches, or more thorough collector examination. The 1985 date benefits from extensive examination by the cud collecting community, so its 30 documented varieties likely represent a higher percentage of actual cuds produced than less-studied dates. Struck on copper-plated zinc planchets at 2.5 grams and 19mm from the 1985 mintage.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Geoffrey Noe
• CU-1C-1985-22
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References