CU-1C-1803-03R Cud

Description

Third and final reverse cud cataloged on the 1803 Draped Bust Cent with Small Date and Large Fraction, CU-1C-1803-03R completes a trio of documented rim fractures that collectively illustrate the vulnerability of early Federal-era die steel. Three distinct reverse cuds on a single die variety is a notable concentration, suggesting that production conditions for this 1803 pairing pushed the die material past its structural limits at multiple points along the rim. The large copper planchets demanded considerable force from the screw presses at the early Philadelphia Mint, and each strike transmitted shock waves through the die that accumulated as fatigue fractures over thousands of impressions. Unlike modern dies manufactured from tool steel alloys engineered for extreme hardness, early Mint dies were forged from carbon steel whose hardening was inconsistent and whose grain structure left vulnerabilities at stress points. The existence of 01R, 02R, and 03R together on the Small Date, Large Fraction variety offers researchers a comparative dataset for studying how rim breaks distributed around the die circumference under the pressures of early American large cent production.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Friscomint1793 on eBay
• CU-1C-1803-03R
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References