Carson City Trade Dollars by Hub Combos

lermish

I recently acquired the final hub combo needed to complete this sub-set so I thought I would break down the varieties and rarities for the few who may be interested.

The trade dollar has two different obverses and two different reverses.  (There are some who think there is a type 3 also, however @alefzero showed that was a re-engraving, not a new hub.)  The easiest way to tell the obverses apart is either the flag or the fingers.  The type one has the flag pointing left and three fingers and the type two has the flag pointing down and four fingers.

The easiest reverse pick-up point is the berry under the claw; type 1 has it, type 2 does not have one.  Other simple pick-up points are where the bottom-most arrow is pointing in relation to the 2 in 420 and whether the eagle's neck feathers are sticking out or smoothed.

1873-CC: Tough coin, only came in 1/1
1874-CC: Common date, only came in 1/1
1875-CC: Common in 1/1, scarce in 1/2.  Most reports have roughly 10-15% of the 1.6M mintage having the type 2 reverse as the dies were delivered later in the year.  Given that 2 of 16 die pairs use the type 2, this is likely a fairly accurate estimate.
1876-CC: Better date but common in 1/2.  Roughly 2/3 of the issue were 1/2 and the remaining third were the 1/1.  Almost all of the 1/1s are the well known Doubled Die Reverse which is one of the most noticeable and pronounced doubled dies in US numismatics. There is another 1/1 with a very distinct small, wide mintmark. This die was used from 1873-76 with 76 being the most common of the  four, however it is still very scarce in absolute numbers.  There was yet another 1/1 used with no DDR and a normal mintmark that is exceedingly rare.
1877-CC: Better date, only came in 2/2
1878-CC: Tough coin, only came in 2/2.  Most collectors regard this as a key date however anecdotally I have found 73-CC to be just as scarce if not more so.

alefzero

The position of the S from GRAINS relative to the crossing of the branch and arrow feather is also helpful in knowing the reverse hub type: set left for Type I and fairly centered for Type II. Knowing a few for each is helpful for this series because chopmarks can be positioned to obliterate one or more of them.

lermish

@alefzero said:
The position of the S from GRAINS relative to the crossing of the branch and arrow feather is also helpful in knowing the reverse hub type: set left for Type I and fairly centered for Type II. Knowing a few for each is helpful for this series because chopmarks can be positioned to obliterate one or more of them.

Type 1

Type 2

KiwiNumi

Interesting read. I'd never looked into trade dollar varieties before.

lermish

@KiwiNumi said:
Interesting read. I'd never looked into trade dollar varieties before.

Thanks! These are (mostly) just the hub combinations though. There are many fascinating varieties, which I really enjoy. However, as @tradedollarnut says, the only thing rarer than trade dollar varieties are trade dollar variety collectors.

kaz

That's a really nice summary and worth bookmarking for anyone curious about the CC TD varieties. Here are a couple of the more scarce ones mentioned above,


My 76-cc type 1/1 "normal" rev has been cleaned.

Crypto

I often referred to the 76cc type 1/1 plain as rev of 75 as it was used on a common 75cc die pair as well. I don’t know is it is any rarer than the 76 wide CC as they are both come up about half a dozen times a year. The wide CC just seems more common because they have been noticed for a decades vs just a few years.

Cool set

Crypto

Funny how the wide CCs never come chopped for the most part. Wonder if those dies were dusted off for local payouts on demand where the large orders for banking/shipment were processed though a different process

FlyingAl

Very neat! Lovely set!

lermish

@Crypto said:
Funny how the wide CCs never come chopped for the most part. Wonder if those dies were dusted off for local payouts on demand where the large orders for banking/shipment were processed though a different process

That's an interesting theory. And then whatever overage may be shipped out with the rest of them?

Or, maybe just the overall scarcity? If there were only 20-30k per year (guessing), and most were melted like the other die pairs, doesn't leave too many. But the math seems impossible with the limited information we have.

mbogoman

The four 76-CC Types:

DDR (AU58)

Type 1 "Normal CC" (AU58)

Type 1 "Wide CC" (AU55)

Type 2 (XF45)

Crypto

I don’t own a 76cc anymore although keeping my eye out for a sweet au53 ddr chop. Here is a 75cc I have tucked away

alefzero

@Crypto said:
I don’t own a 76cc anymore although keeping my eye out for a sweet au53 ddr chop. Here is a 75cc I have tucked away

It appears you might have the denticle clashes under the left wing (right side of the coin) that appeared on the 1876 use of the reverse die. That is interesting if it can be confirmed. Even more interesting if some are found without as well.

DDR

Here's my 75-CC with the Type II reverse. It has a chop mark on the eagle's breast. As noted, these are very tough to find.

mbogoman

@alefzero said:

@Crypto said:
I don’t own a 76cc anymore although keeping my eye out for a sweet au53 ddr chop. Here is a 75cc I have tucked away

It appears you might have the denticle clashes under the left wing (right side of the coin) that appeared on the 1876 use of the reverse die. That is interesting if it can be confirmed. Even more interesting if some are found without as well.

Here's my 75-CC Wide. Is this what you're talking about??

alefzero

@mbogoman said:

Here's my 75-CC Wide. Is this what you're talking about??

Yeah, but up close it doesn't appear to be that.