Carson City gold, anyone collect it? If so, what is your favorite actual CC gold coin of all time?

SethChandler

Mine is the Eliasberg 1876-CC $5 PCGS MS65. I saw it at last year's ANA in New York. Older PCGS holder, probably at least a point undergraded. In a really hot market, a crazy collector(me if I had the $) would pay $200k to $300k for it.

Although if a 1870-CC $20 was ever discovered in mint state, that would take its place, in my book.

RYK

Actual coin...hmmmm...I have not seen enough in person to say. The favorite that I own is my first CC purchase, an 1878-CC $20 PCGS XF-40. I paid over Trends last fall for it, and I lucked into the Winter Variety 2-B; only two others are known according to Doug Winter's recent book, Gold Coins of the Carson City Mint. And its diagnostic sign, the CC mintmark, is the icon just above my initials on these posts.

Robert

SethChandler

RYK,

Congrats on your discovery. Seen any 70-CC gold?

RYK

Seth,

I have never seen any 1870-CC in person. I was getting into branch mint gold last fall and saw one for sale on Doug Winter's website (www.raregoldcoins.com). It was the Eagle in EF-45 for about $22,500. If I knew then what I know now, I probably would have jumped on it. It is a rare and underappreciated coin selling at a reasonable price.

Anyway, though I still am looking for some CC types (1870's $5 and $10, 1880's $10, and 1890's $5, $10, and $20), I am primarily focusing on New Orleans branch mint coins presently.

Robert

branchmintgold

I bought the Eliasberg 1876-CC $5.00 this summer and later upgraded it to PCGS 66. It is easily the finest CC gold of any denomination I have seen. The Lang collection, sold by B+M this past summer had a couple of really cool pieces, including a great PCGS 1871-CC $10 (that I bought), a killer MS-64 1874-CC $10, the best 1878-CC $10.00 I've seen and a number of Condition Census half eagles including the 1870-CC, 1872-CC and 1878-cc. I currently own the Bass 1873-CC $5.00 in PCGS MS-62 which is one just two known examples of this date in Uncirculated. I've handled enough high grade 1870-CC double eagles in the past few years that they aren't quite as exciting any more. If I ever saw one that was a real Unc., now that would be exciting...

oreville

Guys: You all have cool CC gold!

I do not yet have any and it will be about 5-6 years before I can own my first!

barney

I have some poor-boy cc gold and I'd have to say my favorite is a little-ol NGC 20 '80-CC $5-also have a shiny and baggy NGC 55 '76-CC $20
and a '84-CC NGC 55 $20-oh, and an ANACS 62 '91-cc (semi-p;l) $10 rounds out my little collection. Who knows? It might change at
long beach tomorrow.

RYK

Here is a "finest known" example, article borrowed from the October, 2002, Southern Gold Society newsletter. The coin picture is at the bottom of the post. Let's keep the thread alive!


DWN Sells Finest Known Carson City Gold Coin

Douglas Winter Numismatics, a Dallas, Texas rare coin firm specializing in 18th and 19th century United States gold coinage, recently sold what is believed to be the single finest gold coin produced at the Carson City mint. The coin, an 1876-CC half eagle, had recently been graded Mint State-66 by the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS). Doug Winter, the president of the firm, stated that "the coin was sold for a six figure price to a prominent Nevada collector who specializes in Carson City gold and silver coinage."

The Carson City mint was in operation from 1870 to 1893. During this time period, it produced gold coins in three denominations (half eagle, eagle and double eagle) as well as silver coins ranging in denomination from dime to silver dollar.

Winter, who has written the standard reference book entitled "Gold Coins of the Carson City Mint, 1870-1893," commented that "of all the coins struck at the Carson City mint, the gold issues have extremely high appeal among collectors. Many are very rare in all grades and almost all of the issues produced in the 1870's are of the highest rarity in choice condition."

The 1876-CC is listed in Winter's book as being the seventh rarest of the nineteen half eagle issues from Carson City. There were 6,887 pieces originally struck and it is estimated that eighty to ninety are known today. In Uncirculated, the 1876-CC is currently unique.

Winter listed a number of reasons why this coin was so significant. "First and foremost, this is one of just three Carson City gold coins of any denomination to have been graded Mint State-66 by a reputable third-party service and it is the only pre-1890 issue of any denomination to be graded above Mint State-65. Secondly, this is a date that is rare in all grades, so the existence of a piece in this level of preservation is nothing short of amazing. Finally, it has an incredible pedigree that goes back to 1893 and includes a number of famous collectors."

DWN acquired the coin in Bowers and Merena's July 2002 Rarities Sale for $138,000. It had earlier been in the Henry Lang collection and before this had sold in the Superior May 1990 auction for $121,000. Prior to this, it had been in the famous Louis Eliasberg collection and had realized $26,400 in October 1982. Eliasberg obtained the coin from the eastern collector John Clapp when he purchased his collection in 1942 and it was acquired by Clapp's father in 1893 from the Chapman Brothers of Philadelphia.

There are three major reasons why Carson City half eagles from the 1870's are so rare in high grades. They had low original mintage figures (in most cases below 10,000 examples were produced each year), they were actively used in circulation and there were no contemporary collectors preserving them for future generations. So how did this coin survive in such remarkable condition?

According to Douglas Winter, "it is my belief that this coin was sent from Carson City to Philadelphia in 1876 as part of the annual Assay Commission's meeting. It is likely that some foresighted individual on that year's committee thought this was an interesting piece of Western history and he substituted a more common Philadelphia half eagle. The coin was carefully preserved for the next decade and then it was sold to the Chapman Brothers in the early 1890's. It makes sense that he would have then sold it to John Clapp, Sr. as he was the only numismatist collecting high quality branch mint gold issues at the time."

Douglas Winter Numismatics is located in Dallas and can be reached by phone at (214) 654-9905 or by email at dwn@ont.com. The firm has a website (www.raregoldcoins.com) that contains information of Carson City gold coinage and has an order form for Winter's numerous books on gold coinage.

WWW

ttt - as this is a worthy thread.

RYK- Thanks for responding.

relayer

RYK -

Thanks for the intesting post. (I also saved the photo for my virtual collection)

MrEureka

The Eliasberg 76-CC $5. (I also owned it for a while.)

ms71

I'm not much into CC gold, but I did buy a really nice 92-CC $10 in an old green PCGS AU53 holder a year or two ago. Looks better than most 55s I see in newer holders. Not an expensive coin.

BigD5

I'm not a gold guy, but I ran into, and sold as fast as I could a 92cc $5 NGC au/53 today. First gold dealer I showed it to, jumped all over it. I think he had a home waiting for it. I have to say that CC coinage in general peaks my interest, but gold never did much for me.

RYK

WWW and Relayer,

Worthy maybe, interesting maybe, but a thread that died too soon in my mind. Instead of "ttt", I will post some ways to keep a thread like this going. With reference to the "finest known Carson City gold coin":

If the new owner tried to upgrade it to MS-67 and got bodybagged, now that would be a long thread...

or

if Homerun Hall announced a new Full Feathers designation for coronet liberty head coinage, that would be a fairly long thread...

or

if Anaconda's legal assistant posed in a picture with it, that would be a very long thread...

or

if GMarguli criticized PCGS and complimented NGC and then got booted from the boards, that too would be a long thread...

or

if the coin was auctioned on ebay and there was a typo in the description, someone who had ever bid on an ACG slab bid on it, or someone from the same side of the Mississippi River as the seller bid on the coin (implying a shill), that would be a long thread, but

there is no better way to kill a thread than to post interesting information about an interesting coin!!!

(slightly modified from a previous post)