Probably is factory. And there is a reason for it.
If it's set up as intended, you should find the steel center on the left and the cast on the right.
The A is offset, and the center of gravity is to the left of the center between the two wheels. On the right (or wrong, as the case may be) kind of ground (going across a sidehill that rises to your right) this can make the tractor tippy to the left. A lot of those As (and Cubs) were sold to mow roads and ditches, and that sidehill scenario would be pretty common if you picture them travelling with the left wheel in the ditch bottom while mowing the far side.
The additional weight of the driver to the right of center wouldn't necessarily offset the center of gravity enought to cure any issues. So . . . the solution was to lighten up the left side with the steel wheel, and to add a cast wheel to the right, both of which serve to move the center of gravity to the right.
I couldn't back it up with any solid documentation, but from reading different sources, I think the solution evolved in something like the folowing fashion. Early on, the tractors would have been built with both wheels the same, either cast or steel. As folks started finding them a little tippy in the situation I described, an early solution was to buy an extra wheel weight for the right side. Somewhere along the line, folks with steel wheels figured out that a cast wheel was heavier than the combination of a steel wheel and a single weight, so opted for the cast wheel on the right. Enough so that folks started ordering them with steel on the left and iron on the right.
So, your A is not cobbled up. MANY of them were shipped just that way.
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