CU-1C-1986-17 Cud

Description

Terminal die state — the final phase of a die's working life — is the environment from which all cuds originate, and CU-1C-1986-17 on the 1986 Philadelphia Lincoln Memorial cent represents one such terminal event. A die reaches terminal state when accumulated fatigue damage renders it incapable of producing acceptable coins. This can manifest as extensive die cracking, loss of design detail from wear, or the catastrophic fracture that creates a cud. Terminal die state coins are prized by variety collectors because they document the maximum extent of die deterioration before the die was pulled from service. In some cases, the die may have been producing cud coins for a substantial number of strikes before being detected and removed — the population of surviving cud specimens from a given die depends on how long it operated after the fracture occurred and how many of those coins subsequently survived circulation. For common dates like the 1986-P cent, terminal die state cuds are accessible enough for most collectors to acquire, yet each represents a unique die with its own failure signature. CU-1C-1986-17 is the seventeenth cataloged die break for the 1986 Philadelphia date. Struck on copper-plated zinc planchets (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) at 2.5 grams and 19mm from the 1986 mintage of 4,491,395,493 cents.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Greg Bowyer
• CU-1C-1986-17
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References