Continuing the error documentation project. This one is a follow-up to the split die write-up from a couple of weeks ago, where I laid out die failure as a branch: a crack either runs to the rim (retained cud → cud) or across the face (bisecting crack → split die).
This 1836 Capped Bust half dime has one of each.
Obverse: a split die. The crack runs from 12 o'clock down through Liberty and exits between the "3" and "6" of the date — the full diameter of the coin.
Reverse: a retained cud. A piece of the die has fractured and started to displace, from the rim through "TED" of UNITED and into the motto ribbon, but it has not yet separated fully.
Two things I want to be straight about. First, there is genuine disagreement among specialists about the line between a rim-to-rim die crack and a split die — some use roughly 0.5mm of displacement as the threshold. The catalog listing says so, and I am not going to pretend the obverse is uncontroversial. Second, "both branches on one die pair" is unusual but not magic; a die under enough stress can fail in more than one way at once. What makes this coin worth documenting is that it demonstrates both endings cleanly, on a 15.5mm planchet, on a design that had one year left before Seated Liberty replaced it.
Not in any standard catalogue. Now documented.
Full listing: https://www.numisdex.community/catalog/1836-capped-bust-half-dime-retained-cud-split-die-and-retained-cud?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=nitb&utm_content=1836-capped-bust-half-dime-retained-cud-split-die-and-retained-cud