1798 Draped Bust Large Cent S-171 Obverse Cud

Description

Cross-referenced to Sheldon S-171 in the definitive early large cent classification system, this obverse cud on a 1798 Draped Bust Large Cent of the Second Hair Style documents a catastrophic die failure from the earliest years of the United States Mint. A cud forms when a piece of the die breaks away completely from the rim, leaving a cavity in the die that fills with metal during striking and produces a raised, featureless area on the coin's surface. On this specimen, the cud break occurred on the obverse die just counter-clockwise of the word LIBERTY, creating a smooth, raised mass where design detail should exist — a stark disruption on the obverse of Robert Scot's Draped Bust portrait of Liberty. The Sheldon numbering system, created by William H. Sheldon in his landmark 1949 reference "Early American Cents," assigns unique numbers to each die variety of large cents from 1793 through 1814, and the S-171 designation places this coin within a specific die pair that can be traced across the surviving population. The 1798 large cent was struck at the Philadelphia Mint — the only operating mint facility — on substantial copper planchets weighing approximately 10.89 grams at 29mm diameter. Dies in this era were individually hand-engraved, making each one a significant investment of skilled labor, and Mint practice was to continue using dies even after cracks and breaks developed, as replacing a die required creating an entirely new engraving. The Second Hair Style designation distinguishes this variety from the alternative hair arrangement used on other 1798 large cent dies, adding another layer of attribution detail for early American coin specialists.

Attribution History

• Discovered by NumisDexDealer
• Sheldon S-171