CU-1C-1847-1 Rim Cud

Description

Pre-Civil War die technology produced this rim cud on an 1847 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent, a large copper coin struck during the era when United States cents measured 27.5mm in diameter and weighed 10.89 grams. Christian Gobrecht's Braided Hair design, introduced in 1839 as a refinement of the earlier Coronet Head motif, features Liberty wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY with her hair arranged in elaborate braids — intricate design elements that placed considerable stress on the dies during striking. The 1847 mintage of 6,183,669 large cents came exclusively from the Philadelphia Mint, which was the sole production facility for this denomination. Rim cuds on large cents are particularly dramatic due to the coin's substantial diameter, which means even a moderate-angle die break produces a sizeable raised blob that is easily visible without magnification. Cross-referenced under its primary designation CU-1C-1847-1 by Cuds on Coins, this is the first documented cud for the 1847 date. The large cent series, which ran from 1793 through 1857, suffered frequent die failures because the soft copper planchets required significant striking force to bring up the design details, and the relatively primitive steel metallurgy of the mid-nineteenth century produced dies more susceptible to fracturing than their modern counterparts. Each cud on a pre-1857 large cent documents a survival from an era when die management practices were still evolving.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Friscomint1793 on eBay
• CU-1C-1847-1
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References