1852 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent - CU-1C-1852-01 Rim Cud

Description

CU-1C-1852-01 records a rim cud on the 1852 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent, a Gold Rush-era date. Philadelphia struck 5,063,094 large cents in 1852, production that coincided with the peak of California Gold Rush activity and the growing debate over reducing the cent's size and weight that would eventually lead to the introduction of the small cent in 1857. The Braided Hair design by Christian Gobrecht had been in continuous use for thirteen years by 1852, and the dies were manufactured using techniques refined over decades of Philadelphia Mint operations — yet rim fractures remained an unavoidable consequence of striking large copper planchets under mechanical press force. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins under cross-reference CU-1C-1852-01, this variety documents die failure from one of the final years of the large cent denomination before Congress authorized the smaller Flying Eagle design in the Coinage Act of 1857.

Cross References

• CU-1C-1852-01

External References