1878-CC 50c CC Coin of the Week 1-3-2010

Reckon I get the dubious distinction of bringing in the first C.C. "Coin of the Week" for the year 2010. Well here it is.

In 1878, the mint in Carson City saw a drastic reduction in minting numbers across the board. Most notable was to the minor coinage, the dimes, quarter dollars and half dollars. Minor coinage reduction was not limited to just the C.C. mint, both Western mints (San Francisco also) took the biggest hits. Of the total small silver coins made by the three mints in operation, 6,728,000, the mint at Philadelphia accounted for 80% of them.

But Carson City was hit hard, with production totals of small coinage falling 90% of what they were the previous year of 1877. Two other things happened as well as with this drop in production in Carson City, one, 1878 was the last year that the Seated Liberty design was produced and the other was that 1878 was the last year that the C.C. Mint would produce small silver coins. After 1878, no more dimes, quarter or half dollars would be made in Carson. 1878 was, however, the first year for the Morgan dollars, but that's another story.

The 1878 Carson City half dollar had a mintage total of 62,000, a substantial drop from the 1,420,000 of 1877. In contrast, Philadelphia minted 1,378,400 while San Francisco made just 12,000. Of the 62,000 1878-C.C. half dollars minted, it estimated that 80-120 survive in all grades.

With such a low mintage, only one set of dies were said to have been used. They were of the variety with the "closed bud" on the berry of the reverse. The second "C" of the mintmark letters is lower that the first one. A second die variety with parallel mintmark letters is said to be about, but none have been verified. There are no other distinguished die cracks or marks, major enough to make for a variety to command a premium. Uncirculated examples are found with either proof like or frosty surfaces.

Price ranges are estimated in the following grades are: G- $690, -VG- $990, F- $1170, VF- $1920, EF- $3120, AU50- $4780,
AU55- $5190, MS60- $10,500.

Even though the 1878-S is by far rarer (12,000 minted) the 1878-C.C. is considered to be one of the key dates of the Seated Liberty half dollar series as well as a rare coin in it's own right. You rarely see them out on the bourse floor of your favorite coin show. Of course I do not own one as of this time, but look forward to the day I see one at a coin show and have enough trading fodder to close a deal on one.
Happy hunting.

Great coin Randy. I dont have one either, but they are nice to look at!

Why thank you, Garry.
-R-

Good stuff Randy!

You know, 62,000 is a big number any way that one looks at it. So it always amazes me to think how few of these coins there are remaining in the world today. If there are about 100, 1878-CC 50c coins extant, then even if they were all stacked up right in front of us, only one C4OA member in four would be able to own one!

On another topic concerning the year 1878, when reading Rusty's book, "The Mint on Carson Street", I have to shake my head in wonderment at how blatant the political discrimination was during those times...especially 1878. Rusty wrote that of the 20 million ounces of silver that came out of the comstock mines that year, almost 90% rolled right past the Carson City mint on its way to the San Francisco mint.

I would love to know exactly what kind of monumental BS the director of the treasury must have come up with when reporting to congress.
How could he possibly justify shipping this mountain of silver almost 200 rugged miles to SF, instead of a dozen miles or so to Carson City, all the while issuing orders to the CC Superintendant to curtail the production of coins of all denominations. Think how funny it would have been if the Director's orders to CC got mixed up and exchanged with his orders for SF. I can just hear the SF superintendant screaming all the way to Washington DC!

Belay Off

PS: I am very fortunate to have collected a full set of 1878CC silver denominations and will share them with my C4OA friends below;

You are the man, Belay Off. Did you check out that 1870-CC dollar I posted the other day? If someone here doesn't buy it, or at least examine it for attribution, I wont be able to sleep at night! :laugh:

Hi randysc

Great writing Randy on your 1878-CC seated half dollar post in the C4OA COW. I don't own one yet but one of these days...........
Keep up the good work.

Michael the drummer