1891-CC $10 Liberty Head Eagle PCGS MS63

This beauty from the Carson City Mint is near the top of the pop. PCGS has graded 112 in MS63 with only 11 finer. There are none graded above MS64 by PCGS.  

The 1891-CC gold eagle saw the largest mintage at the Carson City Mint of any gold eagle struck at that storied mint with a total of 103,732 examples. However, many circulated in the Old West, for Westerners balked at using paper money. Many other spent time in bags traveling to and from Europe, which resulted in bagmarks and grades in the MS61-MS62 range. NGC Coin Explorer writes, "MS63 examples are rare, and choice or higher coins are nearly impossible to find."

Photo of Carson City mine boarding house, circa 1890.

Coin dealer and numismatic author Ron Gillio writes, "Here's a[n] 1891-CC $10 story. My first trip to Europe to buy coins was in about 1970. I went to Zurich ... [and] went to the bullion department of Credit Suisse .... They ... brought out two bags of mixed date coins. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just picked out the Carson City mint coins. We bought about 75 to 100 uncirculated 1891-CC $10 Liberties. Those truly were the 'good old days' and unfortunately all of the coins are now long gone."