1882-CC, 1883-CC, 1884-CC & 1885-CC $1 Morgan Silver Dollar 4pc Set NGC MS63 Ex. GSA Hoard

If you are new to Carson City Morgan dollars, AUCM is presenting a great way to kick start your collection of them! Please see below for an explanation of the GSA Carson City dollars in their distinctive black holders.

1882-CC, 1883-CC, and 1884-CC Morgan Dollars

These three coins form a trinity of similar "CC" dollars that are generally well-struck and offer, according to numismatic author David Bowers, "beautifully deep frosty lustre." They are the most widely available of all the Carson City silver dollars. Below are the original mintages and the former GSA holdings.

1882-CC mintage 1,133,000. GSA holdings: 605,029 or 53.4% of original mintage.

1883-CC mintage 1,204,000. GSA holdings: 755,518 or 62.75% of original mintage.

1884-CC mintage 1,136,000. GSA holdings: 962,638 or 84.73% of original mintage.

1885-CC Morgan Dollar

(Mintage 228,000) The 1885-CC has the lowest mintage of all the Carson City Morgan dollars. Because of that, collectors have always been drawn to this date and mintmark. There were 148,285 of them--65.03% of the original mintage--in the Treasury hoard that was sold via the GSA in the 1970s and 1980. Bowers writes of the 1885-CC: "Most examples are brilliant, lustrous, and attractive to the eye. ... Most are well struck with brilliant, frosty lustre."

The Carson City Mint, where this set of four Morgan dollars was struck in the 1880s. Photo: Wikipedia.

It was after the Treasury Release of 1962-64 that the U.S. Treasury Department discovered a previously unknown massive hoard of silver dollars in canvas mint bags--2,937,693 of them--hidden away in Treasury vaults. What the Treasury Release started, the General Services Administration (GSA) finished. GSA coins are housed in a distinctive rectangular black felt holder encased in plastic.  The vast majority of them were brilliant uncirculated silver dollars with the "CC" mintmark of the Old West. Four mail bids were conducted by the GSA from October of 1972 to June of 1974. That emptied the vaults of over 2 million "CC" (and some other) silver dollars. The final 977,902 "CCs" were sold via GSA mail bids during the heady speculative silver craze of 1980.