Q. David Bowers
Business Strikes:
Enabling legislation: As earlier, plus Act of February 28, 1878
Designer: George T. Morgan
Weight and composition: 412.5 grains; .900 silver, .100 copper
Melt-down (silver value) in year minted: $0.86928 Dies prepared.
Obverse: Unknown; Reverse: Un-known.
Business strike mintage: 756,000
Estimated quantity melted: Unknown, but probably hundreds of thousands under the 1918 Pittman Act.
LARGE CC OVER SMALL CC:
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 20 to 40 (URS-6)
Approximate population MS-64: 300 to 500 (URS-10)
Approximate population MS-63: 800 to 1,200 (URS- 11)
Approximate population MS-60 to 62: 1,750 to 2,500 (URS-12)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 1,500 to 3,000 (URS-12)
Availability of prooflike coins: Prooflike coins are rare, and DMPL pieces are extremely rare.
Characteristics of striking: Average to below average sharpness.
PERFECTCC:
Approximate population MS-65 or better: 125 to 150 (URS-9)
Approximate population MS-64: 900 to 1,300 (URS- 11)
Approximate population MS-63: 1,600 to 2,400 (URS-12)
Approximate population MS-60·to 62: 3,250 to 4,500 (URS-13)
Approximate population G-4 to AU-58: 3,500 to 5,000 (URS-13)
Availability of prooflike coins: Prooflike coins are available, more so than for the Large CC over Small CC. DMPL pieces are rare, but are more available than for Large CC over Small CC.
Characteristics of striking: Ranges from average. to fairly sharp.
Known hoards of Mint State coins (both varieties as a class): The proportions ofthese varieties in Harry J. Forman's bag (ex). Grove Loser) were not recorded. Loser had at least two bags, and CJ. Dochkus and Aubrey E. Bebee had one each. The Treasury had earlier unintentionally' paid out another to someone in "Montana or Seattle." 4,123 were held back from 1962-1964 Treasury release and subsequently sold by the General Services Administration. About 600 of these were the Large over Small CC variety, with the balance being the Perfect CC issue. Most were in grades MS-60 to MS-62 and extensively bagmarked, Probably about 10,000 or so Mint State coins remain today.
Proofs:
None
Commentary
The 1879-CC is the rarest of the early (1878-1885) Carson City Morgan dollar issues. The Large CC over Small CC was first published by Walter Breen, from a DMPL in the 1955 MANA Convention auction. See Additional Information below. The alleged Proof in B.M. Douglas's advertisement, The Numismatist, Dec. 1951, has not been verified, but probably was a DMPL.
Learning About the Variety
In the coin hobby during the early 1960s very little was known about the 1879-CC with large CC over small cc, which was first called "Capped CC," a terminology still seen today. The following article appeared in the "Collectors' Clearing-house" feature of Coin World, February 5, 1964: (Clipping copy supplied by Weimar W. White.)
"The 1879-CC BU silver dollar with an odd mintmark pictured in the January 17 'Clearinghouse,and reprinted here, seems to have attracted considerable response from interested readers, but no conclusive results except that it appears to be a legitimate variety.
"Our first inkling of the interest came on the Saturday evening of the week the paper came out, when a reader phoned us from Massachusetts. He said the coin was a variety that had been described in a Hollinbeck-Kagin auction catalogue for October 1962, and called "rare." Coin World's library skips that particular catalogue, although it has the one before and the one after. In the same firm's auction for February 4,1963, under Lot 518, we find this: '1879-CC Cap on CC,' Brilliant Uncirculated. RARE. (estimated) $150.'
"In the picture, there seems to be some metal at the tops of the CC's which might well be called a 'cap.' So, until somebody who knows tells us differently, we assume the coin owned by Weimar White is a 'Capped CC' variety. The rarity factor, however, seems to be highly debatable. In the same firm's catalogue for September 18, 1961, we find this: 'Lot 1167. 1879-CC BU, choice. One of the best specimens of this rare date we recall seeing. (estimated) $200.'
"That leaves us a bit in the dark as to comparative scarcity. If the 'normal' coin in choice BU was valued at $200, and the rare 'Cap on CC' in BU was valued at $150 one year later, what do we know about rarity? Nothing.
"Checking the current issue of Coin World at this writing (January 29 issue), we found a few BU or Unc. 1879-CC dollars advertised at $150-$160, and one ad offering them in BD at $114! So we know less about value than we did before, as-suming all those in the ads were 'normal' mintmark coins (which is not a good assumption, seeing that White and his friend ordered just BD dollars and got the variety).
"Before we get to the letters that have come in about this coin, we have one more interesting reference to cite, in the Middle Atlantic Numismatic Association Convention sale of October 28-29,1955, catalogued by Associated Coin Auction Co. of New Jersey. Lot 1778 reads in part as follows: ' .. .pseudo-Proof showing the usual bagmarks. The mintmark CC appears to be cut over something else; first seen like it.'
"We wonder if that is the first published mention of this variety. Neither Carmichael nor Wallace in their 1951 and 1959 Scrapbook articles on Morgan dollar varieties mention any such coin, nor did Drost or Klaes. Now for the letters.
"Three readers reported 'perfect' CC's; Mrs. Walker Gunderson of Ohio, Sig Schwartz of Tennessee, and Herbert P. Hicks of Massachusetts. On the other hand, 10 readers say they have coins to match the picture, with about 20 pieces or more represented. Tom Mason of Wyoming says he has five or so, and that it is from a 'rusted die.' He says the only perfect mintmark type he has seen was on a Proof surface coin, presumably first strike, according to him.
"Other remarks by several of the letter-writers include the statement that they have been told this is 'normal' for the 1879-CC. Russell A. Hibbs of West Virginia says he has two pieces left of a roll that popped up in a Federal Reserve Bank in 1956. One of them is identical, the other seems also to have something wrong with the bottom of the right-hand letter.
"We can now answer White's original question to the extent that the coin is a legitimate variety, possibly called a 'Capped CC.' Beyond that, we are still in the dark. Which is normal, which is scarcer? Maybe we'll hear from somebody that knows. In addition to Hibbs and Mason, other writers with the oddity include: Henry Boyce, New Hampshire; Roberta Finklestein, N ew York; Curtis Brook, Illinois; Jim Robertson, N.J.; F.R. Baughman, Ohio; William Shepard, Florida; Lucien Dube, New Jersey; and William D. Clark, Michigan."