RCD-5c-1867-07 Retained Cud

Description

Cataloged as the seventh retained cud for the 1867 Shield Nickel No Rays, the RCD-5c-1867-07 preserves another instance of rim fracture on this early American base-metal coinage. The Shield Nickel series introduced at the end of the Civil War represented a significant departure in American coin production — the copper-nickel composition was harder and more resistant to wear than the silver alloys used for the half dime it replaced, but this hardness also placed greater demands on the steel dies used to strike them. The retained cud mechanism — a rim fragment that cracks but does not fully detach from the die — produces coins bearing a distinctive raised blob of metal that partially obscures the adjacent design while preserving distorted remnants of the original engraving beneath the fragment. Attributed by Cuds on Coins, this variety is part of a substantial population of retained cuds documented for the 1867 date, with at least ten examples cataloged. The concentration of die failures for this single year suggests that the Philadelphia Mint was still refining its die-making and hardening processes for the relatively new copper-nickel alloy, as the metal's greater hardness compared to silver accelerated die wear and made rim fractures more likely during extended production runs.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Fred Weinberg
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References