Hello, folks. been lurking for a bit now, figured I'd finally break my silence and request some commentary on this coin. I'm certainly no expert on error coins (or anything else in this hobby) so I welcome any and all comments. This is a 1940-S Lincoln Cent with what to my untrained eye appears to be a fairly significant major die break, or "cud" on the reverse, on the edge directly right of the "T". Not looking for a value per se (Though, if someone happens to just have one off hand, I'd be interested) as i'm guessing this isn't anything tremendously valuable...rather, I just find it interesting. I've had it for quite a while, and just figured it would be as good a subject as any for my first post. Thanks in advance, everyone. (Higher res scans of obv and full rev available if desired)
Well there you go then. Thanks for the info, ikandiggit! Indeed, that phrase allowed me to find this e-bay auction which provides some idea of the asking price, and seems to confirm it as a known error. And tha nks for the welcome, as well. Not a bad start, I'd say! *heh*
Yikes! 52 different cuds/retained die cuds for the 1940-S wheat cents in my book, a very common date/mint mark for this error.
Or it could just be time for me to get rid of this CRT monitor. This thing's gotten me into a lot of trouble before!
The op's pic is a little blurry. I've adjusted the contrast on my screen. I don't see any of the wheat stalk in the cud which I believe should be there if it's "retained". But if it was just a cud, shouldn't it be raised and not indented because it would have broken off the die?
I'm not sure if it has to be a deep enough break to obscure all elements of the design or not in order to be called a full cud. Maybe it's just called a shallow cud.
*heh* Wow...this thread exploded. First, robbudo, thanks for the extra information about the commonality. Certainly born out in the fact that it's awfully easy to find examples of this nature online anywhere from $5-$25. next, my apologies for the blurry first image. Was in something of a hurry. This evening I'll see if i can't produce a better scan with more detail. I'm thoroughly enjoying the conversation...it's precisely what I'd hoped to generate. Not being an error-coin collector (or a very advanced collector at ALL) this is all good stuff to me!
Ok, the difference certainly seems clear enough to me. But what, then, IS mine? Just a cud? And..more to the point (for me at least...since the whole issue here is that it's kinda neat and I'm enjoying the education *heh*) How's a mark like that happen on a penny? I mean...what could the process be that would leave such clearly defined "rims" on both sides, with a blank "valley" between them??? Any ideas?
I'm not sure what to call it or how that happened. We'll have to wait for one of the Lincoln guru's to show up and explain it.
