CU-25c-1987P-02 Rim Cud

Description

Second in the Cuds on Coins catalog for the 1987-P Washington Quarter, this rim cud was documented on December 19, 2018, with no additional cross-references known. The designation CU-25c-1987P-02 confirms that at least one other cud had already been cataloged for the 1987-P quarter before this specimen was submitted. Rim cuds on Washington Quarters from the 1980s provide tangible evidence of die failure during high-volume production at the Philadelphia Mint, where the combination of hard copper-nickel clad planchets and rapid striking speeds placed significant mechanical stress on working dies, particularly at the rim where the geometric transition between die face and collar creates concentrated stress risers. The 1987-P Washington Quarter was struck in copper-nickel clad composition at the standard 5.67 grams and 24.3 mm diameter, featuring John Flanagan's classic Washington portrait obverse and heraldic eagle reverse that had been in continuous production since 1932. By 1987, the Washington Quarter was approaching its fifty-fifth year of production with the same basic design, and the Mint's die manufacturing process was well established — yet rim failures remained an inherent possibility in any high-speed coinage operation, as no amount of process refinement can entirely eliminate the fatigue-driven crack propagation that eventually leads to die edge separation. The resulting cud appears as a raised, smooth mass at the coin's rim where the broken die segment left a void that filled with planchet metal during striking.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• Cross reference number: none. 12/19/2018.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References