CU-1c-1881-01 Rim Cud

Description

Cataloged as CU-1c-1881-01, this rim cud on an 1881 Indian Head Cent represents the sole documented cud variety for a date that sits in the later period of the series, when annual mintages at Philadelphia had grown substantially from the lean years of the late 1860s and early 1870s. The 1881 cent recorded a mintage of approximately 39.2 million pieces, reflecting the expanding American economy of the Gilded Age. The rim cud formed through die rim fracture: a section of steel at the die's edge broke away during production, and subsequent strikes forced planchet metal into the void, creating a raised, shapeless mass where design detail should appear. By 1881, the Indian Head Cent had been in production for over two decades, and Longacre's design was well established in commerce. The bronze composition (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) had been standard since 1864, producing a softer strike than the copper-nickel issues of 1857-1864. As the only cataloged cud for 1881, CU-1c-1881-01 suggests that die rim failures on this date were relatively infrequent — or that surviving examples with cuds have been scarce enough to limit documentation to a single variety.

External References