IDB-1c-1952S-01 Interior Die Break

Description

Cataloged by Cuds on Coins with a documentation date of September 20, 2018, IDB-1c-1952S-01 represents the sole documented interior die break for the 1952 San Francisco Mint Lincoln Wheat Cent. Interior die breaks differ fundamentally from rim-based cuds and retained cuds: rather than fracturing at the die's edge, the die surface develops a break within the interior design area, creating a raised anomaly that appears surrounded by normal design elements rather than connected to the rim. This distinction makes interior die breaks rarer in documentation and more challenging to classify, as the break must be differentiated from die chips, die gouges, and other surface anomalies. The 1952-S Wheat Cent was produced during the penultimate decade of the wheat ears reverse design, a period when San Francisco maintained a significant role in cent production before the mint temporarily ceased making coins for circulation in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The San Francisco facility's 1952 cent production consumed die pairs that each experienced the cumulative fatigue cycles inherent in high-speed striking, and interior die breaks represent a failure mode where subsurface stress fractures propagate to the die face at locations determined by the specific stress distribution within each die. The self-referencing cross-reference notation — IDB-1c-1952S-01 referencing itself — indicates no additional attribution in external catalogs exists for this variety, making the Cuds on Coins entry the primary documentation. Interior die breaks on Wheat Cents constitute a relatively small catalog compared to cuds and retained cuds, making each documented example a meaningful addition to the understanding of die failure modes in mid-twentieth-century coinage.

Attribution History

• Cross reference: IDB-1c-1952S-01. 09/20/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References