1855 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent - Knob on Ear - IDB-1c-1855-01 Interior Die Break

Description

IDB-1c-1855-01 documents a fracture within the die face of an 1855 Braided Hair Coronet Head Cent rather than along the rim. Interior die breaks differ from cuds: while cuds involve rim fragments breaking away, interior breaks form when stress fractures propagate through the die body in areas surrounded by intact steel, producing raised irregular features within the design field. The Knob on Ear is die pair N-9, on which a piece broke out of the die just above Liberty's ear, leaving a raised lump on every coin struck from it; the photos show this break is that lump. Struck at Philadelphia two years before the large cent was replaced by the Flying Eagle cent in 1857, the 1855 Braided Hair cent is a substantial coin weighing approximately 10.9 grams of pure copper. Large cents had been in continuous production since 1793, and by 1855 the rising cost of copper relative to face value was making the denomination impractical.

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