Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: Act of February 28, 1878, plus the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of July 14, 1890
Designer: George T. Morgan
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $0.67401
Dies prepared: Obverse: 10; Reverse: 10.
Business strike mintage: 1,352,000; Delivery figures by month: January: 106,000; February: 110,000; March: 110,000; April: 110,000; May: 110,000; June: 116,000; July: 110,000; August: 40,000; September: 126,000; October: 120,000; November: 140,000; December: 154,000.
Specimens sent to the Assay Commission: 676 Estimated quantity melted: Probably hundreds of thousands under the 1918 Pittman Act.
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 1,000 to 1,800 (URS-12)
Approximate population MS-64: 3,000 to 5,000 (URS-13)
Approximate population MS-63: 8,000 to 15,000 (URS-15)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 20,000 to 35,000 (URS-16)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 75,000 to 140,000 (URS-18)
Availability of prooflike coins: 1892-CC dollars with prooflike surfaces are scarce, and DMPL coins are scarcer. Exceedingly rare MS-65 DMPL or finer. Most have deep mirror surfaces and if not extensively bagmarked are very attractive.
Characteristics of striking: Most are well struck, but some are flat at the centers.
Known hoards of Mint State coins: Scattered bags were released from storage in the San Francisco Mint in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The Redfield hoard (1976) is said to have had a bag or more of 1892-CC, but most coins were damaged by a counting machine.
Proofs:
None
Commentary
Most Mint State 1892-CC dollars are heavily bagmarked and exist in lower grade levels from MS-60 to 62.