1858 Flying Eagle Cent - Small Letters - Flying Eagle Cent (Small Letters) Reverse Rim Cud (7 to 1 o'clock)

Description

Spanning from 7 o'clock to 1 o'clock on the reverse, this long rim cud follows the reverse rim for nearly half its circumference on an 1858 Flying Eagle Cent of the Small Letters variety. The Flying Eagle Cent, designed by James B. Longacre and produced only from 1856 through 1858, represented the first small-cent format (19mm diameter) after decades of large copper cents. The 1858 Small Letters sub-variety is distinguished from its Large Letters counterpart by the size of the obverse inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A rim cud of this length — covering roughly 180 degrees of the reverse rim — represents the loss of a long stretch of the die's rim gutter before the press operator removed the die from service; on the coin it appears as a raised interruption in the design rim that tracks the rim's course. The Small Letters designation narrows the attribution to one of the two obverse lettering styles of 1858.