Famous 1870-CC Half Eagle Rarity
First Year Carson City Mint Issue
1870-CC Liberty Head Half Eagle. EF-45 (PCGS).
Offered is a highly desirable example of this historic, popular, rare and conditionally challenging Carson City Mint gold issue. It is a handsome coin displaying rich honey-rose color enhanced by glints of pale silver tinting. Appreciable satin luster remains, and the detail is bold to strike throughout from a well executed strike. Faint hairlines and a touch of glossiness to the texture are noted for accuracy, but the in hand appearance is impressively smooth in the absence of the sizeable marks that often plaque early date CC-Mint coins. On January 8, 1870, the Carson City Mint officially opened for coinage operations under the direction of Superintendent Abraham "Abe" Curry. The first $5 gold half eagles to bear the distinct CC mintmark of this facility were delivered by Coiner Ezra Staley on March 1 in the amount of 400 coins. By year's end the total mintage for this issue would amount to just 7,675 pieces. In the outstanding reference The Confident Carson City Coin Collector (2020), CC-Mint expert Rusty Goe provides the following monthly breakdown for this mintage: -March = 400 coins -April = 760 coins -May = 730 coins -July = 2,530 coins -September = 530 coins -October = 725 coins -December = 2,000 coins As with all early gold and silver issues from the Carson City Mint, the mintage for the 1870-CC saw immediate use in regional commerce, which would result in a high rate of attrition and correspondingly low rate of survival. Rusty Goe's estimate for the number of coins extant in all grades is just 75 to 95 pieces, the vast majority of which do not exceed Choice VF. Among the rare EF and AU survivors, several are impaired, and few are as aesthetically pleasing as the specimen offered here. It is a significant piece set for inclusion in an advanced cabinet.
PCGS# 8320. NGC ID: 25WA.
PCGS Population: 13; 18 finer, just one of which is Mint State (MS-61).
From the PentaMint Collection.