1918 (S) Lincoln Wheat Cent Cud and Pre-Cud (Reverse)

Description

This 1918-S Lincoln Wheat Cent displays both a rim cud at the 2:30 position and a pre-cud between 3:00 and 4:00 on the reverse, with the rim cud matching the documented Cuds on Coins catalog variety CU-1C-1918S-01R. The simultaneous presence of a full cud and a pre-cud on the same die documents two different stages of die failure coexisting in a single die state: at the 2:30 position, the die fragment has completely separated and fallen away, leaving a void that produces a raised featureless blob on struck coins; while between 3:00 and 4:00, the die crack has reached the rim but the fragment remains attached, preserving design detail within the cracked zone. This dual-failure combination reveals that the die's structural integrity was compromised across a broad arc of the rim, with the 2:30 cud representing a more advanced failure and the 3:00-4:00 pre-cud capturing the intermediate state where the crack had propagated but breakaway had not yet occurred. The 1918-S Lincoln Wheat Cent was struck at the San Francisco Mint with a mintage of approximately 34.7 million pieces, produced in the standard bronze composition of 95% copper weighing 3.11 grams with a 19.05 mm diameter. Victor David Brenner designed the obverse portrait. The CU-1C-1918S-01R cross-reference in the Cuds on Coins system provides formal catalog documentation, while the accompanying pre-cud adds an undocumented secondary feature. The co-occurrence of full cud and pre-cud on a single die face offers a particularly instructive specimen for understanding the progressive mechanics of die rim failure, where different portions of the same die can simultaneously exist at different stages of structural degradation.

Attribution History

• CU-1C-1918S-01R