1885-CC Morgan $1 CC Coin of the Week 11-02-09

As far as national events, 1885 was a quiet year, Some noteworthy events that happened was on February 18th, the literary classic "The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn" by Mark Twain was first published. February 21st, President Chester A. Arthur dedicated the Washington Monument, March 4th, Grover Cleveland succeeded Chester A. Arthur as President of the United States. On July 23rd, President U. S. Grant gave into his final battle, this one against cancer, died at age 63.
In 1885, new President Grover Cleveland would also sign off for the closure of the Carson City Mint and would remain closed until 1889, but it was able to pump out some coinage, one of them being the 1885 Morgan Dollar.

The Carson City Morgan Dollar of 1885 is a very unique coin. First consider the fact of its mintage. Excluding the 1895 Philiadelphia minted Morgan of which the 12,000 business strikes were melted down by the government and none are known to exist, the 1885-C.C. Morgan has the third lowest mintage of the entire Morgan dollar series. Only the 1893 San Francisco with a mintage of 100,000 and the 1894 Philiadelphia with a mintage af 110,000 business strikes have less mintage totals.

In the GSA mail bid sales of 1972-1974, 148,285 uncirculated examples of the 1885-C.C. were offered with the minimum bid of $60.00. All but 31,569 were sold and they were sold in 1980. the 148,285 uncirculated coins that were offered in those sales account for nearly two thirds of the total mintage, meaning that the majority of the survival numbers are in uncirculated condition. Circulated examples are therefore quite rare, making it a bit challenging for collectors who are interested in building a circulated set. It is estimated that there are fewer than 7,000 examples in grades below MS-60.
The famous Redfield hoard is said to have as many as 1,000 1885-C.C. Morgans making it the sixth scarcest Redfield date.

The strikes are generally full although there are some that are weakly struck in the hair above the ear. It is found with exceptional eye appeal with both frost like and proof like surfaces, but many examples can also be very "baggie".
There are about four die varieties, but none so as to command any kind of premium.

The price spread between circulated Very Fine and the lowest grade of uncirculated, MS-60, is not that wide. Very Fine examples retail at around $490 and MS-60 at about $620. so for that little bit of extra cash, collectors are more apt to spend their money on a MS-60 examples than the lower grades. However the real hunt is in the lower grades.

Price in grades are as follows: Good- $305, Very Good-$414, Fine-$450, Very Fine-$490, Extreamly Fine-$520, Almost Uncirculated-$570 and MS-60 $620.

I'm still experimenting with attaching photos on the website so if one does not come up, I'll still try.

Randy, very good description of the 1885-CC dollar.

At present this coin is quite common in mint condition. Buy a piece for a collection, but not for investment. Before Redfield and GSA sales1885-CC $1 was considered rare due to the low mintage. Once in a while, counterfeit coins can be seen on the market. These were made long time ago. The deception is usually accomplished by using a valid 1885-P dollar (which is common and inexpensive) as a base for soldering a CC mintmark.

For investment purposes look for DMPL, DPL, and PL coins.


The cream of the crop are the DMPL coins with good cameo that were struck from prooflike dies. I am looking for one, but do not know if I can afford it once I find it.

John Armonas

Here is mine. Very close to ulra DMPL I think. It has an unfortunate reeding mark left of the portrait, it looks like Lady Liberty is sticking her tongue out at you.

Good points,John. I'm glad you have noted the fact about the counterfeiting. I have read about those that have counterfeited the coin just as you described but forgot to include that fact. I'm glad you made mention of it. As far as the 1885-CC not being an investment coin, I don't totally agree. You are right in the sense that they don't appreciate in value with any degree of short term investment, but over a longer term they have increased value. Case in point, in 2001 I bought a PCGS graded MS-64 1885-CC at a coin show and paid $260 for it. Today a coin like that retails for $700-$750. Mind you, it did take eight plus years to do it, but it nearly increased three fold in price. That sure beats the stock market. Will it do that in the next eight years? Hard to say, but to be sure, all C.C. coins seem to be safe bets.
Thanks, John.
-Randy-

Nice post Randy! It's not often that one studies a relatively common coin which is five times more difficult to locate than a warn-out, VG-8 piece in an NGC holder than the same date and denomination in an NGC MS 68 holder! But that's exactly the case with the 1885 CC Morgan.

Mine is a GSA MS-65 pictured below. As John points out...this is not a date to bet ones investment dollars on since 80% or more of the extant population is known to be uncirculated and has not been certified. The prices are more likely to go down than up, as these remaining coins come to the certified market.

Belay Off