CU-25c-1985P-09 Rim Cud

Description

Ninth in the Cuds on Coins catalog for the 1985-P Washington Quarter, this rim cud was documented on October 4, 2018, with no additional cross-references known. The count of nine cuds for a single date-mint is notable and indicates that the 1985-P quarter dies experienced a statistically elevated rate of rim fractures during production — or, alternatively, that 1985-P quarters received particularly thorough examination by die break collectors, yielding a deep census of documented breaks. Rim cuds are among the most dramatic die failures visible on U.S. coinage: unlike subtle varieties such as doubled dies or repunched mintmarks that require magnification to detect, a prominent rim cud is often visible to the unaided eye as a smooth, raised protrusion disrupting the coin's otherwise circular edge. The mechanism involves fatigue-induced crack propagation through the die steel at the rim, where the geometric transition between the die face and the collar channel concentrates mechanical stress during each strike cycle. The 1985-P Washington Quarter was produced at the Philadelphia Mint in copper-nickel clad composition (5.67 grams, 24.3 mm) during a period of strong economic activity that drove high demand for circulating coinage. John Flanagan's Washington Quarter design, by then over fifty years into its production run, had been struck by thousands upon thousands of individual dies, and each die represented an opportunity for the kind of rim failure documented here as the ninth for the 1985-P date-mint.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• Cross reference number: none. 10/04/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References