B.O.L.O. Cuds
Be on the lookout for cuds in pocket change. They can be worth hundreds of dollars.
That’s right. It is still possible to find very valuable coins in circulation. Not like the old days, when you could nab an 09SVDB Lincoln from pocket change or find a 50D Jefferson on top of your dresser. But valuable minting errors still lurk in circulation, you just have to know what to look for. Some cuds sell for multiple hundreds of US dollars, and they are not limited to US coins.
Look at this spiffy 5 mace (5 miscals) from Sinkiang Province in China. It is a nice coin, but do you see what’s going on at the 4 o’clock position on the obverse, the side with the dragon? That’s a cud. Error collectors love cuds. The value of the pictured coin is bolstered by the presence of the cud, and Stack’s Bowers sold this 5 mace for $825 US dollars during a 2023 auction.
An inquiry - We recently received an inquiry from a man named Adam about his 3 mils coin from Cyprus.
Adam wrote “I have this coin with a very strange error on the reverse side. Looks like the coin has a thick glob spot dripped on it during minting. Same color as the coin and I'm almost certain is connected to the coin. Any thoughts?” (see Adam’s inquiry by scrolling down this page: CoinQuest.com)
Adam aptly describes a “cud” minting error. For more information on cuds press here.
Check your change. Cuds can be very valuable, as we demonstrate below.
Cuds and the minting process - Coins are made by minting machines that apply tremendous stamping pressure to pieces of metal, leaving artistic patterns in the finished coin. The pieces of metal, or coin blanks, are called planchets, and the hardened patterns that stamp the planchets are called dies. There are two dies in a minting press, one die for the front, and one die for the back of each coin.
After hours and hours of coin striking, the dies sometimes break under the pressure. Mint workers usually replace the dies before they crack, but sometimes several coins are produced before the workers find and replace cracked dies. If the broken dies go unattended for long periods of time, the break grows worse and worse, leaving larger and larger malformations on the struck coins. A large lump of coin metal left by a die break is called a cud or sometimes extra metal.
The cud on the Lincoln cent in our picture is quite spectacular. If you look closely, you can see the effects of the die break on the reverse (tails side) of the coin. This is such a remarkable error, it would probably sell for $50 to $100 retail. A dealer would usually pay one-half that amount. If the coin were a Washington quarter or a Mexican peso, the value would be about the same. Collectors are interested in the malformation, not the denomination of the coin. Less spectacular errors are worth less. More spectacular errors are worth more.
How much are cuds worth? - To answer the question, check the three images below. The images show (A) minor cuds, (B) moderate cuds, and (C) major cuds.
We never claim to know precise values of rare coins (no one does), but approximately:
Group A Minor cuds are worth $1 to $10
Group B Moderate cuds ae worth $10 to $50
Group C Major cuds are worth $50 to $500
Look at the Lincoln cent in Group C. This amazing find displays a massive die crack, with “extra metal” oozing from the center of the crack. This is a $350 coin. The others in Group C would be worth less, probably $200 or so.
In contrast, the tiny cuds on the Group A coins are barely visible to the naked eye, so they are down near $1 in value.
So, B.O.L.O. — Be on the Lookout — for cud minting errors in pocket change. A valuable find is always exciting! Hope you find plenty. Happy collecting.