1972 (D) Eisenhower Dollar - CU-100c-1972D-01 Rim Cud

Description

First documented rim cud for the 1972 Denver Mint Eisenhower Dollar under this particular catalog entry, this variety records a die rim failure on the second-year Denver issue of America's bicentennial-era dollar denomination. The Eisenhower Dollar's substantial 38.1mm diameter required dies with correspondingly large face areas, and the rim stress generated during striking was proportional to the planchet size and the pressure needed to fully impress the design. This rim cud represents the loss of part of the die's rim gutter, which shows on each subsequent strike as a raised interruption in the design rim that tracks the rim's course. The 1972-D Eisenhower Dollar was produced in copper-nickel clad composition at the Denver Mint in a mintage of approximately 92 million pieces — a substantial run that subjected numerous die pairs to the cumulative stress of repeated high-pressure striking. Frank Gasparro's obverse portrait of President Eisenhower and the Apollo 11 eagle-on-the-moon reverse both extended design elements near the rim, where they intersected with the area most vulnerable to fracture. The 1972 date is historically notable in the Eisenhower series because the Philadelphia Mint produced a variety of three distinct reverse die types that year (Type 1, 2, and 3), though the Denver issues used a single reverse type. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this rim cud variety documents the mechanical challenges that the United States Mint faced in producing dollar coins at industrial scale, where die rim integrity was a persistent concern.

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