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1882-CC $5 Liberty Gold Piece
…from the drummer collection
The 1882-CC half eagle has an original mintage of 82,817. It is tied with the 1892-CC half eagle for 15th (of 19) place on the rarity scale for coins from this series. There are 515-600 estimated survivors in all grades (figures courtesy of
The Mint on Carson Street by Rusty Goe.)
This (and all) “CC” half eagles are Type II, Coronet Head, left, within a circle of stars with the Motto “In God We Trust” on the ribbon above the eagle. Coin designer: Christian Gobrecht.
Price estimates (courtesy of
U.S. Coin Digest 2009):
VF-20 $415 XF-40 $625 AU-50 $900 MS-60 $7,500
With Carson City mint superintendent James Crawford at the helm, the year 1882 saw the “CC” mint produce four denominations: (
Silver) – Morgan dollars. (
Gold) – half eagles, eagles and double eagles.
The 1882-CC half eagle is the most available pre-1890’s half eagle but is still a scarcer issue than its mintage figure suggests. The coin shown here from my collection is graded AU-55 by NGC. It has a bold strike, crisp detail, a lustrous golden-yellow hue with only a trace amount of minor infractions. An attractive light-reddish copper toning can be seen around the stars and in the denticles on the obverse. Over all, it’s a beautiful, eye-appealing specimen. Unfortunately, there is a distracting “cloud” scratch on the surface of the plastic coin holder’s reverse side .
This date is reasonably attainable in the lower circulated grades and slightly scarce in the higher AU grades. It becomes very scarce in lower mint state and very rare in MS-62. PCGS and NGC list three specimens apiece as the finest known graded MS-62.
There is only one die variety known. (Die varieties explained courtesy of
Gold Coins of the Carson City Mint by Douglas Winter – Edited by James L. Halperin.)
VARIETY 1-A: “The date is placed centrally and is level. The mintmark is tall and rather widely spaced. It is positioned above the V in FIVE.”
1882 HISTORICAL EVENTS:
January 13: Composer Richard Wagner completes his opera
Parsifal
February 3: Circus owner P.T. Barnum buys his world famous elephant “Jumbo”
April 3: Outlaw Jesse James is shot and killed by Robert Ford in St. Joseph, Missouri
May 6: The Chinese Exclusion Act becomes first US law restricting immigration
August 7: Family Feud: The Hatfield’s from southern West Virginia feud with the McCoy’s from eastern Kentucky. At least 100 people are wounded or killed
August 20: Composer Peter I. Tchaikovsky’s
1812 Overture opens in Moscow, Russia
December 22: Inventor Thomas Edison creates first string of Christmas tree lights
By
Michael Parrott (the drummer) C4OA LM-0023
Topic Author
