1870-CC $10 Liberty Head Eagle NGC XF40 - color!!!

“This is the rarest and most famous eagle from the Carson City mint,” writes Doug Winter.

It was on January 6, 1870, that the Carson City Mint first opened its doors for bullion deposit and coin production. Over the course of the next twenty-three years, the mint would strike some of the most popular and romanticized coins in American history.

While there are certainly numerous rare coins among the silver and gold emissions of this famous branch mint, the 1870-CC is categorically the rarest Liberty head eagle struck in Carson City. According to NGC Coin Explorer, “This issue also surpasses the celebrated 1870-CC double eagle for top rarity honors among all CC-mint gold coins.”

NGC has graded 8 as XF40 with 22 finer. PCGS reports that there are 45-60 examples known to exist today.

The Carson City Mint, where this great rarity was struck the year it opened. Photo: wikipedia.

Despite the fact that the 1872-CC, 1873-CC, 1876-CC, 1878-CC, and the 1879-CC all have lower mintages, far fewer of the 1870-CC issue have survived to our day. At the time of production, the Carson City area was desperate for gold coinage for daily commerce, which strongly suggests that the entire mintage of 5,098 was put into circulation. When considering that the highest graded pieces at both PCGS and NGC are only AU55, this explanation makes perfect sense.

Continues Winter, “It is actually close in overall rarity to the highly-prized (and priced!) double eagle of this date/mint but it is … valued at a fraction of its larger cousin. There were 5,098 struck and I believe that around 50 or so are known today. Most 1870-CC eagles are very well-worn … like nearly all the early gold pieces from this mint, saw considerable use in local commerce. Any 1870-CC eagle that grades Extremely Fine is quite rare and properly graded AU's are very rare with around a half dozen or so known to me.”