1879-CC $10 Gold CC Coin of the Week – 12-7-09

1879-CC $10 Liberty Gold

When people talk about key gold coins produced at the Carson City mint, they usually discuss the 1870-CC $20. But just because the 1870-CC Double Eagle is the most important individual gold coin, it does not automatically follow that Carson City Double Eagles are the key gold series. Instead, that honor goes to the next lower denomination, the Carson City $10 Eagles. From 1870 through 1893, the US Branch Mint in Carson City, Nevada produced this gold $10 coin in 19 separate operational years. Within those 19 dates, I have selected the 1879-CC $10 Eagle as the December 6th, 2009 Carson City Coin of the Week.

The 1879-CC $10 Eagle has the distinction of being the lowest mintage year of the entire series of gold Eagles. In fact, with a paltry 1,762 total coins minted, the 1879-CC $10 has the lowest mintage total of any gold coin ever produced at Carson City! Even more amazing, the 1879-CC $10 has a lower mintage total than 110 out of the total 111 coin/dates produced at Carson City mint. Only the 1871-CC Seated Liberty $1, with a miniscule production of 1,376 coins, was produced in fewer numbers.

There was a time when the 1879-CC $10 was thought to be the key coin in the Carson City Eagle series. But the discovery of a few more examples of the 1879-CC Eagle in recent times has changed this thinking. Today, despite the impressively low original mintage totals for the 1879-CC Eagle, as well as its slightly lower population extant, the 1870-CC Eagle is, instead, considered the key $10 gold Eagle in this Carson City series.

This disparity can be answered, in part, by examining the relative condition of the existing certified coins for each date. There are thought to be 65 to 70* remaining 1879-CC Eagles and 70 to 80 remaining 1870-CC Eagles, most of which have been certified. When comparing the certified grades of the 1879 Eagles with those of the certified 1870-CC Eagles, the 1879-CC Eagles are found to have less overall wear. This seems to indicate that the 1879-CC Eagles did not spend as much time in actual circulation as did the CC Eagles minted in 1870. Accordingly, the 1870-CC Eagles as a group, have greater “conditional rarity” than the remaining 1879-CC Eagles. This fact, in addition to the esthetic value associated with the first year of the Carson City mint’s operations, explains why the 1870-CC Eagle is the key coin of the Carson City $10 coin series.

Regardless, the 1879-CC $10 is still an extremely rare coin with just one uncirculated example and less than two dozen certified as almost uncirculated. Nonetheless, auction prices for the 1879-CC Eagle do not seem balanced with the coin’s overall rarity when compared to the prices paid for other important Carson City minted gold coins. In fact, both Rusty Goe and Douglas Winter** have stated that they believe the 1879-CC Eagle is undervalued. While studying the 1879-CC Eagle in preparation for this article, I found plenty of support for their reasoning and offer the following interesting comparison for your consideration;

Coin..............Minted..Remaining....VF-30......XF-40.....AU-55

1870-CC $20...3,789.....55-65......235,000....340.000...550,000

1870-CC $10...5,098.....70-80.........25,000.....40,000...125,000

1879-CC $10...1,762.....65-70...........7,250.....13,000....42,500

The argument for the 1879-CC Eagle as an under-valued coin is rather compelling when one reviews these statistics. I would add that, in this writer’s opinion, the 1870-CC $20 is a particularly “over-priced” coin when considering its true rarity. The prices paid for the 1870-CC Double Eagle reflect, in part, the coin’s subjective popularity and not just its objective, statistical rarity.

The surface condition of virtually every old Carson City gold coin is very “baggy” and seldom shows measurable remaining luster. Unlike silver coins which are more durable, coins made of 90% gold and 10% copper are fairly soft and much more susceptible to dings, dents and scrapes. Gold coins are heavier than their silver cousins as well, adding to the likelihood of greater damage when dropped or mixed together with other objects.

In addition to the proliferation of dings and abrasions found on CC gold coins, there is almost universal damage to these coin’s original “skin”. Obviously, this is due to excessive dipping and cleaning efforts these highly prized gold coins have endured over their 13 decades of existence. While this reality can be disappointing for anyone endeavoring to collect Carson City gold coins, it’s a fact of life that must be accepted. The remaining few of these rarities whose surfaces boast original luster are highly prized and command very steep price premiums.

Until recent times, there were no known uncirculated examples of 1879-CC $10 Eagles. Then, in Alaska of all places, a small group of gold coins was discovered stashed away in a drawer. Amongst the various denominations and dates was a true, mint state 1879-CC Eagle. The coin has since been certified by NGC as MS-62. With a population of one, this new kid on the block is clearly at the top of the certified pile. Of the estimated remaining certified examples of this date, there are approximately two dozen coins graded AU-50 through AU-58, a similarly sized group of XF examples, with the rest of the certified batch found in and around VF.

Over the century and a third since its production, the 1879-CC $10 Eagle PCGS AU-50 pictured above has been dipped at least once. Cleaning hairlines are also found when viewed under magnification. However, given that this is the normal state of affairs for almost the entire population of Carson City gold coins, I am not complaining. Frankly, I am very fortunate just to have this certified AU example of the 1879-CC Eagle in my collection. While the surface shows the typical excess of bag marks and abrasions, the strike itself is above average as evidenced by the close up of the eagle's neck feathers which, are more frequently found soft and not as well defined.

The coin’s classic “Liberty Head” design was created in 1838 for the $10 gold coin by Christian Gobrecht. This style is also known as the “Coronet” design named thusly for Ms Liberty's crown or Coronet, which is boldly inscribed with the word LIBERTY. Gobrecht’s profile of Ms. Liberty was taken from another of his works, the portrait of the Roman goddess of love and beauty, “Venus”. For my money, Christian Gobrecht’s depiction of Ms Liberty was a vast improvement over the stone faced, unattractive “Liberty’s” so often impressed on coins dated before 1838 and after the beautiful “Draped Bust” style, which was unfortunately, done away with around 1808.

The Liberty Head $10 gold coin was produced by five separate US mints over a period of almost 70 years, including the Denver Mint in 1906 and 1907. There are three “Types” of Liberty Head $10 Eagle. The subject Carson City Coin of the Week is a Type 3 and is distinguished as such by the addition in 1866 of the motto, “In God We Trust". The Liberty Head $10 gold coin was replaced in 1907 by Augustus Saint Gauden’s Indian Head design.

Including the Liberty Head $10 gold coins produced at all five mints from 1838 to 1907, there are in excess of 150 individual dates to collect, not including proofs. Of these 150 some odd dates, there are less than 10 that are considered the keys to the entire Liberty Head gold $10 coin series. The 1879-CC $10 Eagle is one of them.

Belay Off

*Updated total extant figures courtesy of Rusty Goe.
** Winter, "Gold Coins of the Carson City Mint".

Greetings Belay Off!

This is a fantastic posting of your 1879-CC $10. Yours is a most informative and captivating article about a very desireable coin.

the drummer:woohoo:

You are outdoing yourself, Belay Off. Awesome coin and presentation.

I was watching the History Channel Sunday, Dec. 6. I was watching a program about a dig in Central Kansas looking for lost treasure of Jesse James. A number of double eagles, eagles and some silver coins were uncovered, some dated after 1882, which lent some fuel to the theory that Jesse James was not killed in 1882. There was no discussion of the mintmarks on the coins, however.

Hi Garryn

I saw that same show "Searching for the Buried Treasure of Jesse James". A most intriguing show but I, like you, was a bit disgruntled that no mention of mintmarks on the coins were made. Obviously, the producer of that TV program was not a numismatist!

It does make you wonder if his death at the hands of Mr. Ford was a "set-up". As you said, the coin dates and his death date definitely do not coincide.

Hey Garryn, this is some coin Belay Off has here (1879-CC $10 PCGS AU-50)

the drummer

I agree, Mike, this is quite a nice coin to have around, isn't it.

I wonder if the group that was excavating the site wrote a report. The person heading up the excavation was Ron Pastore. I didnt catch the name of the group.

There is some feedback on the Collector's Universe forum that the coins looked too clean coming out of the ground. They have some suspicion the whole thing was staged.

Hi Garry

I didn't catch the name either of the excavating group that worked on the Jesse James treasure find. I will watch the TV program again and this time take a few notes.

Michael the drummer