1870-CC $20 Gold Piece CC Coin of the Week - 11-6-2011

Drummer,

The story in the back of The Mint on Carson Street about the strong box full of imperfect, 1870-CC Double Eagles has intrigued me since the first timne I read about it. Like most good mysteries, there are enough believable elements in the story to cause a person to wonder if it might actually be true.

The obvious difficulty the coiners had, as described in Rusty's article, could easly mean the first batch were faulty and thusly, rejected by Curry. But would he have ordered them sent to the vault and stored or remelted right away for another attempt at perfecting the process?

Logic says that given the small amount of gold authorized to mint into coins, that he would not have had the luxury to sitting on a large pile of faulty double eagles. By the side of me that loves such intrigues allows the mystery to linger.

The issue with the lost AU-58 coin is obviously an inside job, as you
speculate. Your ask how the coin could have dissappeared from the Brinks truck? In my opinion, the logical answer is that the coin was either removed before the lock box was placed in the Brinks truck or it was never in the lock box in the first place.

Belay Off

I could only wish, Belay. I had the pleasure of holding TWO of these rarities at the same time at the Boston ANA show courtesy of Park Avenue Numismatics. My hands were shaking as I was afraid that I would drop one. Sad part was I had to hand them back over.

Loosechange

Hi Belay

Very astute observations regarding both issues (1870-CC $20).
I too have been intrigued by the hoard of missing imperfect 1870-CC double eagles for quite some time...IF that hoard does exist, and it was ever discovered, it would more than likely blow all prices out of the water! Those collectors that paid a hefty sum might just be a little ticked off!

regarding the 2nd issue: Like all passionate "CC" fans, I hope that special finest known coin is found or returned intact.

the drummer

All,

Below is a link to the story about the stolen 1870-CC Double Eagle on the Heritage Auction web site;

www.ha.com/c/press-release.zx?releaseId=2109

Belay Off

Hi Belay

How sad this is....

Thank you for providing this link, now everyone can get at least a view of the fabled stolen 1870-CC $20

the drummer

To GarryN, Belay Off, Loosechange, and The Drummer,

It gladdens my heart to read your observations and approvals of my first COTW article.

All of you guys, and others, helped us get this project to this point. Just imagine, you all laid a foundation of 107 COTW articles, and hundreds of replies to those articles, as you built this project into a monumental mountain of information.

Come December 18, we can all rest at the summit and look back with lots of fond memories.

Thanks,

Rusty