1870-CC

General Comments 1870-CC is one of the most popular dates in the Liberty Seated dollar series. With a mintage ranking 13th out of 47 the date is scarce, but not rare. It can easily be found with patient searching. The CC mintmark seems to have magical properties, and the 1870-CC, as the most affordable CC Liberty Seated dollar, is always in high demand. Regarding the mintage, note that our figure is slightly higher than the previously accepted figure of 11,758. An excellent article by R. W. Julian in Issue #125 of the Gobrecht Journal (reference 22) reviewed known Carson City mint correspondence and concluded that the actual mintage was 12,462. We believe that Mr. Julian’s research was accurate, so we’ve adopted this figure as the correct mintage. The finest known examples are three MS64 coins, one graded by PCGS, the other two by NGC. One of the NGC coins received a prooflike designation. Eleven more coins have received a MS63 grade, seven by PCGS and four by NGC. Current population reports show 36 examples slabbed as mint state by the two major services. It’s likely that many of these represent re-submissions. We estimate that 20 or fewer examples exist in MS60 or better. Population statistics are as of February, 2019.		Mintage 12,462 Proof mintage None Mintage ranking 13th Finest known MS64 Known obverse dies 4 Known reverse dies 6 Known die marriages 9 Most common die marriage OC-9/ R4- Rarest die marriage OC-4/ R7-

The dies used for 1870-CC didn’t strike many coins. As a result, there was very little degradation over their lifetimes, making the determination of the emission sequence very difficult. However, one piece of information only recently discovered has greatly increased our confidence in the accuracy of the sequence documented below. Obverse 1 was shipped to San Francisco in the spring of 1870 and used to strike 1870-S dollars (see reference 21). This makes it certain that it was used early in the year, which fits perfectly with the sequence that we’ve documented. Also note that we’ve moved OC-9 to the first position in the sequence, fitting it’s status as the most common die marriage with the fact that the largest mintage of 1870-CC dollars was on the first date of issue, February 10, 1870. This is a change from what we documented in the first edition of this reference.

With 9 different die marriages currently identified, and the possibility that other die combinations may exist, attribution can be at least a minor challenge. However, the presence of a mintmark simplifies the process considerably. Use of the following chart should allow relatively quick identification of most examples.

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