CU-1c-1826-01 Cud

Description

Pre-industrial die manufacturing conditions made early copper large cents particularly susceptible to die fracture, and CU-1c-1826-01 documents the first cataloged cud on the 1826 Matron Head Coronet Head Cent — a denomination struck entirely at the Philadelphia Mint, which was the sole operating U.S. Mint facility during this period. Robert Scot's Matron Head design, introduced in 1816 as a modification of the Classic Head type, was struck on large copper planchets approximately 28-29mm in diameter — considerably larger than modern cents and requiring greater striking force that increased die stress. Philadelphia struck 1,517,425 large cents in 1826, a modest production figure that reflects the era's limited coining capacity and manual press operations. The cud formed when a section of die steel fractured at the rim and separated completely, creating a raised featureless area on subsequently struck coins. Cuds on Coins cataloged this variety with no additional cross-references, and as the sole documented cud for the 1826 date, it represents the complete known population of rim breaks for this year. Early nineteenth-century die steel technology lagged significantly behind modern metallurgy — dies were forged from relatively crude iron-carbon alloys without the benefit of modern heat treatment, chrome-vanadium compositions, or computer-controlled tempering that extend die life in contemporary production. Each 1826 die was hand-engraved and manually hardened, making die failures both more common and more individually significant as historical artifacts.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Westcoastcoinsoregon on eBay
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References