CU-1C-1844-02 Rim Cud

Description

Cataloged by Cuds on Coins as CU-1C-1844-02, this rim cud on the 1844 Braided Hair Coronet Head large cent — specifically the 44/81 die marriage — represents a major die break where a piece of the obverse or reverse die fractured and separated at the rim, leaving a raised, featureless blob of metal at the coin's edge. Cuds form when metal fatigue causes a section of the die to break away entirely, and the gap fills with planchet metal during striking, creating a smooth, elevated mass devoid of design detail. Christian Gobrecht's Braided Hair design, produced from 1839 to 1857, served as the final iteration of the large cent before the denomination was reduced in size and weight in 1857. The 1844 issue had a mintage of approximately 2.4 million pieces, struck exclusively at the Philadelphia Mint. Large cents of this era were workhorses of everyday commerce, and their copper composition made the dies particularly susceptible to cracking and breaking under repeated striking pressure. Pre-Civil War cud varieties are inherently scarcer than their modern counterparts because fewer collectors preserved die-broken examples at the time, and many circulated heavily before the hobby matured. The "44/81" designation refers to the specific die pairing in the Newcomb attribution system used for early U.S. copper coinage.

Attribution History

• Discovered by rbolanow on eBay
• CU-1C-1844-02; none
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References