CU-1c-1863-03R & 04R Cuds

Description

Struck during the third year of the Civil War, this 1863 Indian Head Cent carries an uncommon distinction: two separate rim cuds on the same die, cataloged as CU-1c-1863-03R and CU-1c-1863-04R. A rim cud forms when a fragment of the die rim breaks away, leaving an unstruck area that fills with metal flowing into the void left by the missing die steel. Finding two such breaks on a single die is unusual, as each represents an independent structural failure, and the die must survive long enough after the first fracture to develop a second. The 1863 cent was struck on copper-nickel planchets (88% copper, 12% nickel), a composition adopted in 1857 when the Mint abandoned the large copper cent. James B. Longacre's Indian Head design, introduced in 1859, was in its fifth year of production. Wartime demand for coinage was intense in 1863 — the year of the battles of Gettysburg and Vicksburg — and Philadelphia operated under pressure that may have contributed to die failures like these dual rim breaks. The copper-nickel composition was itself a wartime casualty, replaced by bronze in 1864 due to nickel shortages.

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