1878-CC $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle NGC AU58

Here is a unique opportunity for the sophisticated numismatist to acquire one of the great rarities in the Carson City Double Eagle sub-series. With its small mintage of 13,190, there are only three Carson City $20s with lower mintages:

1870-CC ……   3,789

1879-CC …… 10,708

1891-CC ……   5,000

Look at the photos of this stunning survivor of the Old West. NGC has graded 36 as AU58 with just 6 finer (the finest is MS62+), while PCGS has graded only 8 in mint state (with their finest being graded MS62). Therefore, when you purchase this stunner, you will possess one of the highest graded examples of the 1878-CC double eagle. Collectors Universe gives it a price of $65,000 in AU58.

The Carson City Mint, where this specimen was produced in 1878.

At the time they were called Bland dollars or standard dollars, but today we call them Morgan dollars after the designer-engraver George T. Morgan. The mintage of Carson City Morgan dollars for 1878 was 2,212,000. It is quite conceivable that the officers and workers at the Carson City Mint were simply overwhelmed with the work involved in producing so many silver dollars that little time and effort was available to mint double eagles. The mint facility in Carson City was smaller than the mints of Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco, and thus did not have the capability to produce as many coins as the others.