CU-1c-1846-03 Rim Cud

Description

Braided Hair large cents from the 1840s rarely surface with significant die breaks, making CU-1c-1846-03 an uncommon find among early American copper. This rim cud appears on the 1846 Medium Date variety of Christian Gobrecht's Braided Hair Coronet Head cent, a design that served the large cent denomination from 1839 through its final year in 1857. The Medium Date designation distinguishes this die marriage from other 1846 date-position varieties, where subtle differences in numeral spacing and vertical alignment help researchers trace individual obverse dies. A cud forms when a fragment of the die rim fractures and separates, leaving a void in the die face that produces a raised, featureless blob of metal on the struck coin — typically a smooth, rounded mass interrupting the rim and adjacent design elements. On large cents of this era, die breaks carry heightened significance because production volumes were modest compared to later denominations, and fewer dies were consumed per year. Philadelphia was the sole facility striking cents in 1846, and every surviving die break variety from this period represents a die kept in service despite visible damage.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Friscomint1793 on eBay
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References