1840 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent - Small Date - CU-1C-1840-01 Rim Cud

Description

CU-1C-1840-01 records a rim-level die break on an 1840 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent, one of the early dates of Christian Gobrecht's redesigned large cent. The 1840 cents come with a Large Date or a Small Date, and one die has a small 18 over a large 18; Cuds on Coins does not say which this coin has. No cross-references beyond the Cuds on Coins designation have been established. Large copper cents of this era were struck on substantial 27.5mm planchets weighing approximately 10.89 grams of pure copper, requiring considerable striking force to fully impress Gobrecht's detailed design — Liberty's braided hair, the encircling thirteen stars, and the date all demanded sharp die impressions that concentrated stress at the die rim. The 1840 Braided Hair Cent falls in the second year of the redesigned series (introduced in 1839), when dies were still being refined for the new portrait style that replaced the earlier Matron Head design. Die manufacturing technology in the 1840s relied on hand-engraved master dies and mechanical transfer methods that, while sophisticated for their era, produced working dies with stress concentrations and metallurgical inconsistencies that made rim fractures a relatively common mode of failure.

Cross References

• CU-1C-1840-01; none

External References