Jeff Ambio: The Carson City Mint is known to have used two obverse dies to strike 1870-CC Liberty Seated silver dollars. Obverse 1 is the "date left" variety, as described in the 1993 reference Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States by Q. David Bowers. The left upright of the digit 1 is in line with the tip of the shield, and the base of the digit 7 is centered over a denticle. Reverse D was used to strike some 1870-CC dollars and all 1873-CC Liberty Seated dollars. It exhibits a widely spaced CC mintmark that is close to both the feather and the stem. The serif of the first C is just right of the feather tip, and the second C is to the right of the junction of the feather and stem.

Rusty Goe: Abraham Curry, superintendent of construction of the Carson City Mint and superintendent of that institution's business affairs, waited eagerly for months to deliver brand new silver dollars stamped with two Cs on the reverse. Curry labored hard through the first eight months of 1869, often providing his own money because of delays in government appropriations, so he could open the mint for business in the fall of that year. The Daily Alta California in San Francisco published a dispatch on August 14, 1869, that said Curry had fired up the mint's big engine on August 12, and everything was "expected to be in full operation and coining money by September 1st." The Carson Daily Appeal on August 31, 1869 stated, "Colonel Curry has a splendid office," and "it will be a proud day for him when he sits in his chair in that room, with everything around him in working order, and lots of bullion to work on."

By mid-October the mint remained closed, but officers there reportedly spread word that they were about to commence the coining of half dollars. Further delays set the starting date forward to the first week of November, but the only thing to come of that prediction was reported in Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise on November 3, 1869: "The trial of machinery of the Branch Mint at Carson took place on the 2nd and proved highly satisfactory." December came and went and the only big news about the mint in that month's papers told about how it had survived an earthquake three days after Christmas.

Newspapers all around the Pacific Coast reported that the Carson Mint had officially opened for business in the first week of January 1870. No sooner had it opened then rumors started to circulate that Congress would reduce its service to that of an assay office, similar to the one in Denver, Colorado. But as reported in the Carson Daily Appeal on February 6, 1870, "Carson Mint dollars have made their appearance." This, according to the Appeal, was "a living refutation of the old, carping prediction that there never would be any money issued from the Carson Mint."

Apparently, Curry had moved ahead of schedule and started making sample pieces of the 1870-CC silver dollars about a week earlier than planned so he could distribute some of them around the region. A reporter at Virginia City's Territorial Enterprise wrote in the February 5, 1870 edition that, "We yesterday saw and examined a silver dollar, which is the first coin of any kind struck off at the Carson Mint."

The official delivery of 2,303 1870-CC silver dollars came on February 11, when the Carson Mint watchman Andrew Wright signed a receipt to accept them on behalf of depositors to whom they were due. The Carson Appeal reported on February 12, 1870 that, "we saw Col. Curry and Andy Wright on the street with a half bushel bag full of silver dollars. Andy was toting them down to the express office and the Colonel was going along as a bodyguard." According to Carson Mint documents, those first 2,303 1870-CC silver dollars came out of the coining room on Thursday February 10, a day before Andrew Wright signed for them. But as per the aforementioned Enterprise article, we see that Curry had his coiner, Ezra Staley, start minting silver dollars toward the end of the previous week. The details of when the very first dollars left the mint and the sequence of when those first 2,303 pieces were struck passed into oblivion during the excitement of the occasion.

One thing that brought much pride to residents of Carson City was the superb workmanship displayed in these silver dollars. Even a Daily Alta California correspondent admitted in his article on February 11, 1870, "in general style and appearance [they] are equal to any coined ... in San Francisco or Philadelphia."

Nevada's House of Representatives delegate, Thomas Fitch, took a small bag of 1870-CC silver dollars to Washington, DC, to pass around in the House chamber in early March. He used them as props in his oratory as he saved the Carson Mint from being shut down only two months after it had opened.

Certain pocket-piece examples of 1870-CC silver dollars have received attention in the 21st century. One is claimed to have been presented to Carson City businessman Matthias Rinckel and his wife Marcella by Abraham Curry. Rinckel heirs have claimed that Curry told Matthias and Marcella that it was one of the first pieces struck that year, maybe even No. 1. Another 1870-CC pocket-piece was inscribed by Curry's successor as superintendent, Henry F. Rice, to Virginia City's postmaster, C.C. Warner.

From the beginning, U.S. Mint records have shown that the Carson City branch delivered 12,462 silver dollars in 1870. Other sources say this number is 11,758, and others claim 12,158. Somewhere it seems that those who favor the former figure have left off 400 pieces struck prior to June 30 and 304 pieces delivered in August 1870. The advocates of the latter total have simply left off the August delivery. With the mysteries surrounding what happened during Curry's jubilant period of passing out new silver dollars, we may never know the correct mintage figure.

Q. David Bowers: Today it is estimated that 550 to 675 1870-CC dollars exist, of which perhaps 200 to 300 are in EF to AU grades and 20 to 25 in Mint State. Some of them have prooflike surfaces. Due to gradeflation, some coins called AU years ago have crossed into Mint State territory, making a true census difficult.

In terms of Carson City Liberty Seated silver dollars, this year is the only one that is seen with frequency. Examples come on the market with regularity, including in lower levels of Mint State. As silver dollars are an extremely popular denomination, any example of the 1870-CC has met with enthusiastic bidding when offered at auction. In correspondence of about 20 years ago collector Weimar White, who has enjoyed this particular CC date, wrote to say that a Mint State example is much harder to find than is a comparable 1893-S dollar, the last being the key to the Morgan series.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the August 2012 Battle Born Collection of Carson City Coinage, where it realized $129,250.