1858 Flying Eagle Cent (Small Letters) Reverse Rim Cud (7 to 1 o'clock)

Description

Spanning from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock on the reverse, this massive rim cud obliterates nearly half the coin's reverse surface on an 1858 Flying Eagle Cent of the Small Letters variety — one of the most dramatic cud errors documented on any pre-Civil War United States coin. The Flying Eagle Cent, designed by James B. Longacre and produced only from 1856 through 1858, represented the first small-cent format (19mm diameter) after decades of large copper cents. The 1858 Small Letters sub-variety is distinguished from its Large Letters counterpart by the size of the reverse inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA encircling the wreath. A cud of this magnitude — covering roughly 180 degrees of the reverse rim — indicates a catastrophic die failure where a substantial crescent of die steel separated before the press operator removed the die from service. The total 1858 Flying Eagle mintage of 24,600,000 pieces (across both letter sizes) makes any error variety from this short-lived series inherently scarce, and a cud of this extent would have been immediately noticeable, suggesting either that quality control missed it or that the coin was struck on one of the final impressions before the die was retired. The Small Letters designation narrows the attribution to a specific reverse hub variety within the 1858 production.