1879-CC Morgan Silver Dollar. Clear CC. MS-64 (PCGS).A brilliant and attractive near-Gem that also exhibits a sharp strike from the rims to the centers. Highly lustrous and a delight to behold. While the 1880-CC, 1881-CC and 1885-CC all have lower mintages, the 1879-CC is the rarest Carson City Mint silver dollar of the 1878 to 1885 era. Writing in the 1993 reference <em>Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia</em>, Q. David Bowers explains the reason for the limited mintage (756,000 pieces) of the 1879-CC:<p><em>"Confiscatory tariffs posted by railroads made it cheaper to send silver bullion [mined from Nevadas rich Comstock Lode] hundreds of miles distant to San Francisco for coinage than to send it 15 miles to the Carson City Mint! As a result, silver bullion was scarce at Carson City, and the mint stopped production of dollars after only a relatively few had been coined. All coinage operations were suspended from March 1 to June 30, 1879, and again from November 1, 1879, to May 1, 1880."</em><p><em></em>As with so many other Morgan dollars, the distribution of examples rather than the number struck is a better indicator for the availability or rarity of survivors. While several thousand coins appear to have found their way into circulation, the vast majority of 1879-CC Morgan dollars were likely melted pursuant to the terms of the 1918 Pittman Act. Quantities survived in government vaults, but limited distributions from the San Francisco Mint in the 1940s and the Treasury Department Building in the 1950s placed most of those coins into the hands of contemporary numismatists. Only 4,123 examples remained on hand to be sold during the GSA sales of the 1970s, and just 400 to 500 pieces were included as part of the famed LaVere Redfield hoard. Most of the GSA and Redfield 1879-CC dollars were heavily abraded and account for many of the lower grade Mint State examples (MS-60 to MS-62) encountered in todays market. Choice survivors such as that offered here are scarce and enjoy particularly strong demand among quality conscious collectors. This impressive coin would do nicely in an advanced collection.From the Blue Ridge Mountains Portfolio.
