RCD-1c-1858-01 Retained Cud

Description

First retained cud documented for the 1858 Flying Eagle cent with Small Letters reverse, RCD-1c-1858-01 records a die rim failure from the final year of this short-lived but enormously significant denomination. The Flying Eagle cent, designed by James B. Longacre and produced from 1857 to 1858 (with limited 1856 pattern strikings), inaugurated the small cent era in American coinage — replacing the large copper cents that had been produced since 1793 with a smaller, lighter coin that used a copper-nickel alloy. The "Small Letters" designation identifies the reverse lettering style, distinguishing these dies from the "Large Letters" variant also produced in 1858. Philadelphia struck approximately 24.6 million Flying Eagle cents in 1858, the denomination's final year before it was replaced by James B. Longacre's Indian Head cent design in 1859. The copper-nickel composition (88% copper, 12% nickel) was harder than the pure copper used for large cents, creating greater die stress during production and contributing to the die failure that this retained cud documents. The retained cud mechanism — rim fracture without separation of the broken fragment — produces a raised displacement along the rim with the crack boundary preserved as a visible line on struck coins. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins with no known cross-references, this variety provides physical evidence of die stress on one of the most historically significant transitional coin types in American numismatics. The Flying Eagle design itself was adapted from Christian Gobrecht's earlier pattern dollar designs, and the eagle in flight on the obverse combined with the agricultural wreath on the reverse created a composition that collectors have prized since the denomination's brief two-year production run.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Thomas Johnson
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References