1796 Draped Bust Cent - LIHERTY Error - CU-1c-1796-01R Rim Cud

Description

This rim cud appears on a 1796 Draped Bust Cent. It is cataloged as CU-1c-1796-01R by Cuds on Coins. Robert Scot designed the Draped Bust obverse, depicting Liberty with flowing hair, a motif adapted from a Gilbert Stuart drawing. The mintage of 1796 Draped Bust cents is given as 363,375. The "R" suffix denotes a reverse rim cud, meaning the die fracture occurred on the reverse die rather than the obverse. Finding a cud on any 18th-century American copper is notable — these coins were struck on hand-operated screw presses at far lower speeds than later machinery, and surviving examples with identifiable die breaks provide direct evidence of the mechanical limits even slow-speed striking imposed on early Mint tooling.

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