CU-1C-1926D-03 Rim Cud

Description

As the third cataloged cud on the 1926 (D) Lincoln Wheat Cent, CU-1C-1926D-03 adds to a growing record of Denver Mint rim failures across the mid-1920s Wheat Cent production. Variety collectors value cuds not only for their visual impact — the raised featureless blob where design should appear is impossible to miss — but also for the information they encode about die behavior under production conditions. Each cud preserves a snapshot of the moment a die's structural integrity failed catastrophically at the rim, and the size and location of the resulting blank area on the coin correspond directly to the geometry of the die fragment that broke away. Larger cuds indicate bigger fractures, while cuds appearing at specific clock positions on the coin map to the corresponding die-rim location that failed. The 1926-D cent was struck during the latter half of the Roaring Twenties at Denver, a facility that produced Lincoln Cents continuously from 1911 onward with varying annual output. Three cuds from a single date suggest either high die turnover rates or aggressive production schedules that shortened die life at the Denver facility during the 1926 coining season.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Keith Bock
• CU-1C-1926D-03
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References