1853 Braided Hair Large Cent Newcomb-9 Off-Center Strike

Description

This 1853 Braided Hair large cent (Newcomb-9) exhibits an off-center strike. Off-center strikes occur when the planchet is not properly centered between the dies at the moment of striking, resulting in a coin where the design is shifted to one side and a portion of the planchet remains unstruck. In this case, the coin was struck around 15% off-center. This coin also could have spent some time as a capped die. The 1853 is one of the later dates in the large cent series, which ended production in 1857.. This 1853 Braided Hair large cent, attributable to the Newcomb-9 (N-9) die marriage, exhibits two independent production anomalies: an off-center strike of approximately 15 percent and surface characteristics consistent with possible use as a capped die. The off-center condition arose when the planchet was improperly positioned at the moment of striking, shifted far enough that a crescent-shaped unstruck area is visible and the design is compressed toward the struck portion. At 15 percent, the date and most central devices remain visible, permitting attribution to N-9. A capped die forms when a struck coin adheres to a die face and is then used to strike subsequent planchets; the surface characteristics here suggest brief exposure to that condition. Braided Hair large cents were struck in copper and designed by Christian Gobrecht; the Newcomb numbering system provides the standard die variety classification for the series. Cross-reference: Newcomb N-9. The 1853 date falls near the end of large cent production — the series concluded in 1857 — making error coins from this era relatively scarce and historically significant survivors.

Attribution History

• Discovered by NumisDexDealer
• Newcomb N-9