PC-1c-1933-01R Pre-Cud

Description

First documented reverse pre-cud for the 1933 Lincoln wheat cent, PC-1c-1933-01R stands as the inaugural catalog entry for incipient die rim failures on this scarce Depression-era date. Philadelphia struck only approximately 14.36 million cents in 1933, one of the lowest mintages in the entire Lincoln cent series, as the depth of the Great Depression dramatically reduced commercial demand for circulating coinage. The low mintage means fewer working dies were required for the production run, making each documented die variety statistically more significant relative to the small die population. Victor David Brenner's wheat reverse design — featuring paired wheat stalks framing ONE CENT with E PLURIBUS UNUM above — provides the diagnostic canvas where pre-cud evidence appears as a subtle raised irregularity along the rim. The Cuds on Coins attribution service documented this variety following their standard naming convention, with 01R identifying it as the first (and currently only at this census position) reverse pre-cud cataloged for 1933. As a pre-cud, the die crack had developed enough to produce a detectable surface anomaly on struck coins — a slightly raised zone along the rim marking where the die steel had begun to fracture under the repeated stress of striking — but had not yet progressed to the retained cud or full cud stages where the die fragment separates and allows planchet metal to fill the void. The scarcity of the 1933 date itself adds collector interest to any die variety from this issue, as the small surviving population limits the number of specimens available for examination and attribution. Collectors should examine the reverse rim carefully under 7-10x magnification with strong angled lighting, looking for a localized area where the rim profile deviates from the smooth, uniform contour seen on undamaged areas of the same coin.

External References