SHD-5c-1883-01R Shattered Die

Description

The 1883 Liberty Head Nickel "With CENTS" occupies a storied position in American coin history. The series launched that year without the word CENTS on the reverse, and an enterprising scheme of gold-plating the "No CENTS" version to pass it as a five-dollar gold piece—the coin being similar in size—prompted the Mint to add CENTS partway through the year, producing the two-variety issue now familiar to every Lincoln and Liberty Head collector. The SHD-5c-1883-01R is a shattered die variety on the reverse die of the With CENTS version, indicating that the reverse die used in late 1883 production had developed an extensive network of cracks covering a significant portion of the die surface—the defining characteristic of a shattered die as distinct from a simple die crack or single retained cud. Under magnification, a shattered die coin reveals a web of raised lines spreading across the affected region, each line corresponding to a crack in the hardened die steel through which planchet metal flowed during striking. The R suffix confirms this is a reverse die failure. Cataloged and verified by Cuds on Coins. No cross-references are recorded.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References