CU-1C-1989-25 Cud

Description

Survival rates for cuds on modern zinc cents depend on a chain of events between the Mint floor and a collector's hand. After a cud-producing die fractures, coins bearing the defect mingle with normal production in the press's output hopper and proceed through counting, bagging, and shipping to Federal Reserve banks without individual inspection. The number of cud coins produced before the die is pulled from service varies widely — from a handful if the fracture is detected quickly, to thousands if the cud is small or the quality control net is coarse during a high-volume shift. CU-1C-1989-25, the twenty-fifth cataloged cud for the 1989-P cent, emerged from this pipeline and was preserved by a collector who recognized the die break among otherwise normal coins. Population estimates for any individual cud variety remain speculative, as there is no systematic way to census how many specimens survive from a given die — only the confirmed examples submitted to catalogs like Cuds on Coins represent the documented population. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint on copper-plated zinc planchets (97.5% zinc, 2.5% copper) at 2.5 grams and 19mm.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Sullivannumismat on ebay
• CU-1C-1989-25
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References