1877-CC $10 Liberty Head Eagle PCGS XF45

This is a great rarity, one that the specialist in Carson City coinage should consider purchasing. Its mintage was a scant 3,332 pieces, however only 60-75 examples are known to exist today.

Writes Heritage Auctions, “This issue's overall rarity is rated a low to mid R.5, but in AU it is significantly higher with only 5-6 pieces believed extant, making it a high R.7 in this lofty grade.” There are no mint state examples of this issue. The highest grade awarded the 1877-CC ten is AU58 from both PCGS and NGC. Carson City coins generally had low mintages. Please see below to discover why that was.

PCGS has graded 14 as XF45 with 18 finer. Collector’s Universe prices this issue at $30,000.00 in XF45. Carson City coins generally had low mintages.

The first superintendent of the mint was Abe Curry, who is also considered the founding father of Carson City. He also was the owner of the Gould & Curry silver mine in the Comstock Lode. According to Paul M. Green in Numismatic News, Curry “came with a lot of negative baggage.”

Abe Curry, the first superintendent of the Carson City Mint and owner of the Gould & Curry silver mine in the Comstock. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Continues Green, “Many other silver mining operations from the region refused to send their silver to any facility run by Abe Curry. That had an immediate and lasting impact. Despite sitting in the heart of one of the largest silver deposits in history, the Carson City facility never had very large mintages, for the simple reason that much of the silver mined in the area was not sent to the local mint, but rather shipped all the way to San Francisco, where it would be made into coins.”

In an interview with Nevada Magazine in 2018, Goe presents a different scenario. He discusses the Bonanza Kings of the Comstock Lode; they owned the two most productive mines at the Comstock. Goe states that they sent the vast majority of their gold and silver bullion to San Francisco. “They would never claim not to support [the Carson City Mint],” said Goe, “but they seemed to send just 10 percent or less to Carson.”