1844 Braided Hair Large Cent Newcomb-5 Obverse Rim Cud

Description

Preserving evidence of catastrophic die failure on the 1844 Braided Hair large cent, this obverse rim cud on die marriage Newcomb-5 formed when a section of the obverse die fractured and broke away between the 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock positions. The resulting void in the die allowed planchet metal to flow into the gap during striking, creating a raised, featureless mass on the finished coin that obliterates the design elements in that zone. The 6-to-7 o'clock position on the obverse places the cud in the lower-left quadrant, potentially affecting the date area or the adjacent drapery and stars of Christian Gobrecht's Braided Hair Liberty design. Gobrecht's final large cent obverse — Liberty wearing a braided hair arrangement with a coronet inscribed LIBERTY — served from 1839 through the denomination's termination in 1857, and the N-5 die marriage was cataloged by Howard R. Newcomb in his comprehensive study of United States copper cents. Philadelphia produced approximately 2.40 million large cents in 1844, a relatively modest production figure for the series that reflects the economic conditions of the mid-1840s. The Newcomb numbering system assigns sequential numbers to each documented die pair for a given date, with N-5 representing the fifth identified combination of obverse and reverse dies for 1844. Large cent cuds are among the most visually dramatic error varieties in early American copper coinage, as the soft copper planchets — struck at 27.5mm diameter — record die failures with exceptional clarity. The raised mass at the rim is typically visible to the unaided eye, though a loupe at 5-7x magnification helps assess the break's extent and confirm the N-5 die marriage through comparison of other obverse and reverse die characteristics against published reference images.

Attribution History

• Discovered by NumisDexDealer
• Newcomb N-5