CU-1C-1948-02 Cud

Description

By 1948 the Lincoln cent had returned to its standard bronze composition — 95% copper, 5% tin and zinc — and CU-1C-1948-02 records a cud error on this restored alloy. The wartime and immediate post-war compositional experiments were over: no more steel, no more shell-casing brass, just the familiar bronze that Victor David Brenner's Lincoln portrait had been struck on since 1909. Philadelphia produced approximately 317 million cents in 1948, a recovery from the 190 million low of 1947 but still well below the billion-plus outputs of the war years. This moderate production level subjected dies to reasonable service demands, yet the second cataloged cud for the date confirms that rim fractures remain an inherent risk of the coining process. Standard bronze planchets are among the most die-friendly compositions in U.S. coinage — soft enough to deform plastically under striking pressure, cushioning the die against the recoil that destroyed steel cent dies in 1943. The cud produced by this fracture displays the warm copper tone characteristic of properly composed bronze cents. CU-1C-1948-02 is documented by the Cuds on Coins project and cross-referenced under its catalog designation.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Marvin L
• CU-1C-1948-02
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References