RCD-1c-1879-01R Retained Cud

Description

The first and sole documented retained cud for the 1879 Indian Head Cent, the RCD-1c-1879-01R records a die rim fracture on a date that sits at the boundary between two collecting eras in the Indian Head series. The 1879 issue belongs to the period when Indian Head Cents began transitioning from relatively low mintages to the higher production volumes that would characterize the 1880s and beyond — the 1879 mintage of approximately 16.2 million pieces represented a significant increase over the preceding decade. A retained cud occurs when a section of die rim fractures but the broken fragment stays partially attached, producing coins bearing raised irregular metal that preserves distorted design remnants from the still-connected piece. The single retained cud for the date suggests that the 1879 dies were either well-maintained or that surviving specimens have not been as exhaustively examined as higher-mintage dates. Attributed by Cuds on Coins, this variety documents die failure during the middle period of the Indian Head Cent's fifty-year production run (1859-1909), when the Philadelphia Mint was developing the die-making and hardening techniques that would support the increasingly larger production demands of American commerce in the final decades of the nineteenth century.

Attribution History

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

External References