RCD-1c-1887-01R Retained Cud

Description

The earliest cataloged reverse retained cud for the 1887 Indian Head Cent, RCD-1c-1887-01R documents a die whose rim-area fragment cracked free yet remained lodged in its cavity, producing a raised or weakly detailed zone on every subsequent strike. James B. Longacre's Indian Head design, introduced in 1860, depicts Liberty wearing a Native American feathered headdress on the obverse and a wreath encircling the denomination on the reverse. The 1887 date falls in the mature period of Indian Head Cent production when the Philadelphia Mint was the sole facility striking cents, and die steel of this era was less refined than later formulations. Retained cuds on nineteenth-century copper issues carry a distinctive visual character — the softer bronze composition (95% copper, 5% tin and zinc) flows more readily into die voids than harder alloys, meaning retained cud zones on Indian Head Cents often show more pronounced metal displacement than comparable varieties on later zinc-core planchets. Philadelphia Mint production. Cataloged and verified by Cuds on Coins.

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