HEAD vs no tag

[Aggarwal, Vineet]

We have a few files that were created on a branch. After merging the
branch to the trunk we notice a strange difference in the handling of
the files that were created on the branch. When issuing a cvs command
(e.g. rtag or checkout) without specifying any tag, those files are not
included. But the commands work fine when explicitly including -r HEAD
flag. I also noticed that these files are still in Attic directory. So I
wonder what is the difference between state=dead and Attic? I understand
the difference in case of branches but for a revision on the trunk
shouldn't dead state imply Attic and exp state otherwise.

Thanks!