CU-1C-1969D-01 Cud

Description

Designated CU-1C-1969D-01 by Cuds on Coins, this die break variety on the 1969-D Lincoln Memorial cent exhibits a cud — a raised, featureless blob of metal along the rim where a fragment of the die broke away entirely, leaving a void that filled with metal during striking. Cuds are among the most visually dramatic die errors because they replace designed detail with an amorphous mass, making them instantly recognizable even to beginning collectors without magnification. The 1969-D cent was produced at the Denver Mint during its first full year of mint-marked production since 1964, when the Coinage Act of 1965 eliminated mint marks to discourage hoarding during the coin shortage. Denver's high production volumes — over 4.0 billion cents struck in 1969 — subjected dies to enormous stress, and cuds represent the terminal stage of die fatigue where accumulated stress fractures reach the die's edge. Once a cud develops, the die is typically removed from service, making cud-bearing coins scarce relative to total mintage. Collectors catalog cuds by clock position, size, and affected design elements, building variety sets that document the complete failure history of individual dies.

Attribution History

• Discovered by JC Stevens
• CU-1C-1969D-01
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References