PC-1c-1861-01R Pre-Cud

Description

Cataloged by the Cuds on Coins attribution service, PC-1c-1861-01R records the first identified reverse pre-cud on the 1861 Indian Head cent — a coin struck during the opening year of the American Civil War. The designation follows the standard naming convention: PC for pre-cud, 1c for the one-cent denomination, 1861 for the date, and 01R indicating the first cataloged reverse pre-cud for this issue. James B. Longacre designed the Indian Head cent, which in 1861 still carried the copper-nickel composition (88% copper, 12% nickel) that would continue through 1864 before the switch to bronze. Philadelphia struck approximately 10.10 million Indian Head cents in 1861, a mintage that dropped from the prior year as wartime disruptions began affecting coinage production and distribution. The Civil War's outbreak in April 1861 triggered widespread coin hoarding that would eventually remove virtually all gold, silver, and eventually copper-nickel coins from circulation, creating the conditions that led to fractional currency notes and postage stamps serving as small change. Pre-cuds capture the initial stage of die rim failure, where the steel has developed a crack near the periphery but has not yet separated into the broken fragment that would create a full cud or retained die break. On the struck coin, this manifests as a raised, slightly irregular ridge or area near the rim where the weakened die surface transmitted the beginning of its structural failure into the coin's metal. The reverse of the 1861 Indian Head cent features an oak wreath encircling ONE CENT with a shield at the top, and the rim area where pre-cuds develop sits just outside this wreath design, at the boundary where die stress from striking concentrates. As the first documented reverse pre-cud for 1861, this variety establishes the baseline for die failure documentation on this Civil War-era date.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Ken Garbowski
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References