This 1870-CC silver dollar offers deep gunmetal gray toning with flashes with blue and russet. The strike is fairly sharp on all the devices and the surfaces are pleasing with very few signs of handling. The appearance is thoroughly pleasing. A scant 12,462 pieces were struck and some of these may have been melted shortly thereafter. Today Mint State examples are seldom offered. This coin is tied with five others at most as the second finest seen by that grading service of this famous Carson City dollar.The Carson City Mint was authorized by the Act of March 3, 1863, while the Civil War continue to rage. The Carson City Mint was established and ready to begin coinage in late 1869, but apparently did not strike coins until the first group of 1870-CC dollars were coined on February 10. It seems appropriate that the silver dollars were the first coins struck at the Carson City Mint, as the silver bonanza is what the Comstock Lode (only 15 miles away) was best known for, despite the fact that nearly the same value of gold was also extracted over the years of operation. Q. David Bowers notes in his extensive <em>Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia</em> that most of these 1870-CC silver dollars were shipped in canvas bags over very rough roads to a railhead in Reno. This accounts for the bagmarked surfaces commonly seen on this issue, making the present offering all the more notable given its fully Choice quality.,,PCGS# 6964. NGC ID: 24ZE.,PCGS Population: 6; 1 finer (MS-64).,
