1838 Modified Matron Head Coronet Head Cent - CU-1C-1838-01 Rim Cud

Description

CU-1C-1838-01 documents a rim cud on the 1838 Modified Matron Head large cent — a die failure where part of the die's rim gutter was lost, leaving a raised interruption in the design rim, following its curve, on every coin struck thereafter until the die was replaced. The Modified Matron Head design, Christian Gobrecht's refinement of the earlier Matron Head portrait, was in its third year of use in 1838 and would be replaced the following year by Gobrecht's further revision known as the "Silly Head" and "Booby Head" varieties of 1839. Large cent production in the late 1830s used hand-forged dies and screw-type coining presses that imparted tremendous stress at each stroke, and the combination of imperfect die steel with high-force striking created conditions favorable to rim fractures. The 28.5mm copper planchet required significant force to bring the design to full relief, and the repeated cycling of this force through the die — hundreds of thousands of times per die lifetime — inevitably produced fatigue failures. Collectors of early copper cents value cuds as tangible evidence of the manufacturing conditions at the early Philadelphia Mint.

Cross References

• CU-1C-1838-01

External References