RCD-1c-1953S-07R Retained Cud

Description

San Francisco's penultimate years of cent production yielded a surprising bounty of die varieties, and RCD-1c-1953S-07R — the seventh retained cud documented by Cuds on Coins for the 1953-S Lincoln Wheat Cent — is a representative example. By 1953, the S-mint had only two more years of cent striking ahead of it, lending each variety from this period added numismatic weight. The retained cud mechanism is consistent: fatigue cracking in the die steel reaches the rim, a section of the die face separates but does not eject, and the trapped fragment creates a raised, amorphous deposit on every coin subsequently struck. The planchets were the now-standard 95% copper, 5% zinc alloy — the wartime formulation that outlasted the war itself. Seven or more retained cuds for a single date and mintmark indicates that die replacement schedules were stretched, likely because reduced cent output did not justify the same frequency of die changes seen at higher-volume facilities. For specialists who collect terminal-era S-mint Wheat Cents, each retained cud variety represents an irreplaceable record of manufacturing conditions during the denomination's final chapter.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Keith Christenson
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References