1890-CC $1 Morgan Silver Dollar PCGS MS64

There is much romance and western lore associated with the silver dollars that emanated from the mint in Carson City, Nevada. Morgan dollar specialists cherish specimens such as the 1890-CC being offered by AUCM. PCGS has graded 2,443 pieces as MS64, with 590 finer. Silver dollar expert Wayne Miller writes that, "[Uncirculated] pieces evidence very good luster and are usually well struck .... Fully gem [MS65 and higher grades] have become very scarce." Ron Guth writes in PCGS Coinfacts that "The 1890-CC is a semi-scarce issue as far as Carson City Dollars go."

Scenes of the devastating White Winter of 1889-90 in Carson City, which appeared in the February 1890 issue of Harper's Weekly.

The 1890-CC silver dollar had the highest mintage of this sub-set, many of which were paid out in 1890. Bowers tells us that in 1893, after the closing of the Carson City mint, a sizable batch of them were shipped off to San Francisco and the Treasury in Washington, D.C. Later on, bags of 1890-CC dollars were more than likely melted under the Pittman Act of 1918. The early 1930s saw 1,000-coin bags paid out in Washington. It was in 1941 and 1942 that more bags were paid out in the nation's capital, followed by many bags being sold in 1942 and 1943 in San Francisco. A few thousand of the latter ended up in the hands of dealers and collectors, with the balance being circulated.  Even more bags saw the light of day during the 1950s in Washington; these found their way to coin dealers with "connections." By 1956-1957 such bags had become hard to come by. Holdings in the GSA hoard were 3,949--or 0.17% of the original mintage.