CU-25c-2005P-02(CA) Rim Cud

Description

Second obverse rim cud documented on the 2005 Philadelphia California State Quarter, CU-25c-2005P-02(CA) preserves a raised featureless blob where a section of the die rim fractured and detached entirely, leaving a cavity that filled with metal during subsequent strikes. California's State Quarter reverse, designed by Don Everhart and featuring naturalist John Muir gazing at Yosemite's Half Dome with a California condor soaring overhead, was one of five designs issued in 2005. Philadelphia struck 257,200,000 California quarters that year, an output requiring hundreds of obverse die pairs, each subjected to millions of high-speed impacts. Rim fractures propagate outward from internal stress concentrations — often at junctions between the rim and adjacent design elements — until the fractured section separates completely, creating the characteristic cud. No additional cross-references exist beyond the primary Cuds on Coins designation. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this variety adds to the documentation of die failure patterns across the State Quarter program, where the annual rotation of reverse designs created a natural experiment in how different design complexities affected die longevity.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Steven Young
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References