1870-CC Liberty Head Double Eagle. AU-50 (PCGS).Offered is one of the very finest PCGS-certified examples of an extraordinarily rare double eagle. In addition to being the rarest Carson City Mint $20, the 1870-CC is also the most difficult to locate with strong eye appeal. The obverse is always softly impressed, especially at stars 1 to 7 and the high points of Libertys portrait. The present example displays characteristic softness to stars 1 through 5 along the left obverse border, due to axial misalignment of the dies, although it is uncommonly bold throughout Libertys portrait. The central reverse also offers bold to sharp definition, as well as a fully legible legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and denomination TWENTY D. around the border, although the letters in UNITED STATES opposite stars 1 through 5 on the obverse are somewhat soft. Both the date and CC mintmark are sharp and clear.
The typical 1870-CC is very heavily abraded, often with numerous large, detracting marks, which should be expected for an early CC-Mint issue that served as a workhorse in commerce. The offered coin is overall lightly abraded from commercial use, and a few more sizeable marks are present within the tresses of Libertys hair behind the brow. The most significant identifier for provenance purposes, however, is a sizeable, although as made planchet depression on the reverse below the letters ST in the word TRUST. Traces of the original mint finish remain, including considerable semi-prooflike reflectivity in the protected areas around and among the design elements. The color is a warm medium honey-gold that provides strong eye appeal. This coin is certainly superior to most examples that have been certified by PCGS and NGC in todays market. The 1870-CC double eagle is unknown in Mint State.
The double eagle was the fourth denomination produced by the fledgling Carson City Mint in 1870, following silver dollars, eagles and half eagles. The mintage is just 3,789 pieces, which Rusty Goe (<em>The Confident Carson City Coin Collector</em>, 2020) divides into five monthly deliveries:
-March = 1,332 coins
-April = 398 coins
-May = 1,137 coins
-June = 462 coins
-August = 460 coins
This is the lowest yearly production figure among the 19 double eagle issues attributed to this frontier coinage facility. Since there was no contemporary numismatic interest, the issue entered commercial channels and suffered the expected high rate of attrition. The 1870-CC is not only the rarest Carson City Mint double eagle, as above, but also one of the rarest in the entire Liberty Head series. It is every bit as desirable as the fabled 1854-O and 1856-O duo, the low mintage 1881, 1882, 1885, 1886 and 1891 circulation strikes, and the intriguing 1861-S A.C. Paquet Reverse - perhaps even more desirable, since no other U.S. coinage facility is as storied or romanticized as that which operated at Carson City from 1870 to 1893.
The rarity of the 1870-CC has long been established, and to this day it remains part of that select group of U.S. condition rarities that are unknown in Mint State. Recent survival estimates put forth by researchers have been fairly tight, ranging from a low of 35 to 45 coins from Douglas Winter in the 2001 reference <em>Gold Coins of the Carson City Mint</em>, to a high of 55 to 65 coins proffered by Rusty Goe in his book <em>The Confident Carson City Coin Collector</em>. Other sources have advanced similar estimates during the opening decades of the 21st century:
- Q. David Bowers, <em>A Guide Book of Double Eagle Gold Coins</em>, 2004 = fewer than 50 coins
-Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth, <em>Encyclopedia of U.S. Gold Coins: 1795-1933</em>, 2008 edition = 35 to 50 coins
-<em>PCGS CoinFacts</em> = 40 to 50 coins
Approximately half of the extant population, or 30 to 39 coins per Rusty Goe, grades EF to AU. Those certified AU-50 or finer by PCGS or NGC, the present example included, constitute much of the Condition Census for the issue. Choice coins in EF-45 also deserve inclusion in this group, such as the Fairmont Collection - Hendricks Set coin in PCGS/CAC EF-45 that realized an extraordinary (for the grade) $810,000 in our Spring 2022 Auction.
The current record price at auction for an 1870-CC double eagle was achieved by a PCGS AU-53 coin. This coin, the Winter plate coin, was formerly part of the Isaac Edmunds, Donald E. Bentley and Prestwick collections. Now the second finest certified by that service, it traded hands for $1,620,000 in Heritages November 2021 Signature Auction. The runner up is actually the PCGS CC#1 coin, certified AU-55, that brought $1,440,000 in our November 2024 sale of the Bernard Richards Collection. That coin was earlier from our (Stacks) Collections of James Walter Carter & Margaret Woolfolk Carter sale, January 1986, lot 453.
NGC currently lists a single AU-55 example as its finest certified, a coin which last appeared at auction in our (Bowers and Merenas) March 2009 Baltimore Auction. In December 2014, the Heritage catalogers described an NGC AU-58 example as: "The finest-known specimen, recently discovered and shortly thereafter stolen during a Brinks transport on October 19, 2011. Unrecovered." The coin was scheduled to appear in Heritages January 2012 FUN Signature Auction. As of this writing, that coin no longer appears on the NGC Census and its current whereabouts are unknown.
Rusty Goe provides additional commentary on the NGC AU-58 example in his 2020 Carson City Mint reference:
<em>From the low-resolution images posted of this coin and the significance of such a piece, there is no doubt that it would justify the highest price ever paid for an 1870-CC double eagle. In all likelihood this AU-58 example would become the first Carson City gold coin to reach the $1 million mark. But until it is recovered (hopefully) its true value and everything else about it will remain a mystery.</em>
Since the aforementioned PCGS AU-53 example sold for $1,620,000 the year after Rusty Goe made this prediction, it is a fair assumption that the NGC AU-58 would now reach the $2 million mark if it resurfaced.
The ownership of any 1870-CC double eagle is a mark of distinction, so much more so when the coin obtained numbers among the very finest certified, as here. Certainly one of the more aesthetically pleasing examples that we have offered for this challenging issue over the years, this piece is worthy of serious bidder consideration. It is sure to sell for a strong bid to an astute Carson City Mint and/or double eagle enthusiast.
Ranked #75 in the fifth edition (2019) of the influential reference <em>100 Greatest U.S. Coins</em> by Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth.PCGS# 8958. NGC ID: 26A8.PCGS Population: 5; 2 finer (AU-55 finest). AU-55 also finest for the issue at NGC.From the Great Pacific Collection. Earlier from Heritages Chicago ANA Sale of August 1999, lot 8220, as PCGS EF-45, "Consigned by the Underwriters and Insurers at Lloyds of London and to be sold without reserve"; David Lawrences sale of the Richmond Collection, Part I, July 2004, lot 2288, as NGC AU-50.
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