PC-25c-1854-01R Pre-Cud

Description

Among the earliest denomination quarters to exhibit a cataloged pre-cud, this 1854 Philadelphia Mint Seated Liberty Quarter preserves a reverse die crack running from the letters QUA in QUARTER to the coin's rim — the precursor stage where the die has fractured but the broken section has not yet separated to form a full cud. Pre-cuds capture a critical moment in die failure: the crack has propagated through the die steel to the rim, establishing the path along which the die fragment will eventually break free. The "R" suffix on the catalog number confirms this is a reverse variety, and position 01 identifies the specific clock-face location of the developing crack. Christian Gobrecht's Seated Liberty Quarter design — featuring Liberty seated on a rock, holding a shield and liberty cap — had been in production since 1838, and by 1854 the design was well established in its mature form with the arrows-at-date sub-type. Die cracks on mid-nineteenth-century coinage reflect the metallurgical limitations of the era, when die steel was less refined than modern alloys and dies were subjected to considerable stress from the screw presses then in use. Cataloged by Cuds on Coins, this pre-cud documents a developing rim fracture on a pre-Civil War American quarter.

Attribution History

• Discovered by Chuck Newman
• Cross reference: none. 02/22/2019.
• Expert attribution by Cuds on Coins

External References