CU-1c-1846-1 Cud

Description

First documented rim cud for the 1846 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent in the Medium Date variety, CU-1c-1846-1 records a die fracture event from the pre-Civil War era of American coinage. This variety and its companion CU-1c-1846-2 together represent two separate die failures during the production of this single date and die variety — evidence that the stresses of striking large copper cents (27.5mm diameter, approximately 10.89 grams of pure copper) placed substantial fatigue loads on the die rims, leading to occasional fracture. Christian Gobrecht's Braided Hair design, which superseded the Matron Head in 1839, depicts Liberty with an elaborate braided hairstyle encircled by thirteen stars on the obverse; the reverse carries ONE CENT within a laurel wreath and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the periphery. At this early period in U.S. Mint history, all dies were made by hand at the Philadelphia Mint — engravers cut each design element individually, and the resulting dies varied in quality, hardness, and susceptibility to cracking. The 1846 Large Cent had a mintage of 4,120,800, and the Medium Date designation separates this die's date punch from the Small Date and Large Date variants also produced that year. The Cuds on Coins catalog lists no additional cross-references. Rim cuds on early large cents are particularly prized by collectors because they combine the visual drama of a major die error with the historical appeal of early American copper coinage — a combination that places these varieties at the intersection of error collecting and early American numismatics. The raised featureless mass at the coin's edge is typically visible without magnification, making cuds among the most accessible error types for visual identification.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Friscomint1793 on eBay
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References