CU-1c-1974-11 Cud

Description

Jumping from CU-1c-1974-09 to CU-1c-1974-11 (with position 10 either cataloged separately or vacant), this variety is the eleventh documented cud in the 1974 Philadelphia Mint Lincoln Memorial cent rim break census. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins without any additional cross-reference numbers, CU-1c-1974-11 records yet another terminal rim fracture from the Philadelphia Mint's enormous 1974 production run. The approximately 4.23 billion cents struck at Philadelphia that year — all without a mint mark, as was standard practice before 1980 — demanded a prodigious number of die pairs, and the cumulative toll of high-speed, high-pressure striking inevitably drove some percentage of those dies to catastrophic rim failure. Each cud in the census represents a unique die whose rim steel separated at a specific circumferential position, producing the characteristic raised, formless mass of extruded planchet metal that makes cuds among the most visually dramatic of all die errors. CU-1c-1974-11 occupies its own distinct position in this catalog, and attribution requires matching the break's geometry — its clock-position, angular extent, and the specific design elements it affects or obliterates — against the reference material maintained by Cuds on Coins. Eleven documented cuds for a single Philadelphia date reinforces the 1974 cent's reputation as one of the richest dates for rim break varieties in the entire Lincoln Memorial cent series.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Darcus Starnes
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References