Jeff Ambio: The date is centered in the field between the base of the rock and the denticles, and there is only partial drapery below Liberty's right (facing) elbow due to die polishing. WB-1 represents the first of two uses of this obverse die in the striking of 1870-CC half dollars. The reverse die of this marriage is identifiable by heavy clash marks within the inside lower right of the shield and in the field below the eagle's right (facing) wing. The CC mintmark is large with normal spacing and the second C lower than the first. WB-1 is the only use of this reverse for the 1870-CC half dollar.

Rusty Goe: From the U.S. Mint's earliest days in the 1790s through the first seventy-seven and a half years of the 19th century, it employed half dollars as its most widely distributed large-size silver denomination. On rare occasions, prior to 1878, we see years in which mintages of the nation's largest silver coin, the dollar, exceeded those of half dollars. Obvious examples are the years 1796 to 1800. There were of course no silver dollars minted for circulation from 1804 to 1835 (and then sparingly as primarily patterns between 1836 and 1839), a time during which half dollars served as the nation's workhorse silver denomination.

When the Carson City Mint opened for business in 1870, the half dollar was still the predominant large-size silver denomination, although the Philadelphia Mint was in the early stages of a five-year run of reinvigorated silver dollar production. Superintendent Abraham Curry and his Carson Mint coiners planned to strike half dollars early in the year to satisfy bullion depositors' orders for them, but first they had to fulfill obligations to deliver silver dollars.

Three months and a week into its inaugural year, after having struck 8,338 of the dollar-size pieces, the acting coiner, Ezra W. Staley, ran the first 1870-CC half dollars through the press. Staley never delivered another example of this denomination, because by the time the next 2,000 half dollars were stamped, in mid-May, Granville Hosmer had replaced him.

By the end of June, when the mint halted for its annual settlement and cleanup time, Hosmer had added another 8,800 half dollars to the ledger, bringing the Mint's total for the first half of the year to 12,800. Staley and Hosmer had delivered 12,158 silver dollars during that same six-month period.

After that, from July 1 to December 31, 1870, half dollars assumed their predominant position in the supply-chain pecking order. Hosmer delivered only 304 more silver dollars in the second half of 1870, while in comparison he added 41,817 pieces to the half dollar's annual total. The 54,617 half dollars coined that year eclipsed the per-piece count of all the other five denominations combined. This dominance in quantities produced for half dollars ruled at the Carson City Mint until 1874, at which time trade dollars took precedence, followed by dimes and quarters from 1875 through 1877, thanks to provisions in the Specie Resumption Act.

While half-dollar output in Carson City appeared bountiful at the local level, it paled in comparison to the yield of that denomination at the other two mints. At Philadelphia in 1870, workers coined nearly 634,000 half dollars; and at San Francisco the total climbed to slightly more than a million.

Collectors in the 21st century can usually find an example of an 1870-CC half dollar with relative ease. This would not be the case, however, if 175 people suddenly decided they wanted one. Prices would rise accordingly. We see this type of price pressure in the higher grades, AU-50 and above, where demand for 1870-CC half dollars intensifies and supplies are anemic.

Q. David Bowers: As is the case with other Carson City coinage of the era, there was no numismatic interest in the half dollars, the new CC mintmark was not particularly noticed in the American Journal of Numismatics (the journal of record at the time) and pieces passed hand to hand and became worn. It was not until decades later that there was any significant numismatic awareness.

Today the 1870-CC half dollar is a key issue in all grades. Rusty Goe estimates a total population of 145 to 165. Only two or three are known in true Mint State, followed by an estimate of 12 to 15 in EF or AU. Most specialists over the years have been satisfied with an example in Fine or Very Fine. The surface quality of such pieces is usually quite nice in comparison to the dime, examples of which usually show porosity.

Specialists interested in different die varieties and combinations (more relevant to later Carson City half dollars than the lower mintage early ones) will want to obtain a copy of the standard text by Randy Wiley and Bill Bugert The Complete Guide to Liberty Seated Half Dollars, 1993. Perhaps more so than any text on the Liberty Seated series, the authors go into many technical details, including the number of obverse dies identified and the number of reverse dies (three each in the case of the 1870-CC), the number of reeds around the edge (certainly a time-consuming pursuit!), and slight variations in diameters. Moreover, aspects of striking are described and are especially useful.

From 1870 continuing to and including 1875, all Liberty Seated half dollars studied by Wiley and Bugert are standard at 154 edge reeds. This would change in 1876.

David W. Lange in The Gobrecht Journal, 1983, contributed "The 1870-CC Half Dollar, Close Examination," and noted that the mintage indicated this was the third rarest in the entire Liberty Seated half dollar series, exceeded only by the 1853-O No Arrows (just three known) and the 1878-S. The writer describes two obverse dies and two reverse dies, giving the characteristic of both and an interesting accompanying narrative. No sooner had this been done than a new die variety was turned up by Duwayne Statzer, and published in the March 1985 issue.

A detailed study of the 1870-CC half dollar is found in The Gobrecht Journal, November 1987, "The 1870-CC Half Dollar -- The Louisiana Hoard," by Randall E. Wiley. This is a group of pieces in worn grades assembled by a numismatist in that state. The holding was gathered by a numismatist prior to April 1986 and contained 90 examples of the 1870-CC half dollar in various grades, and was examined by Wiley and Bugert. They found these coins in grades: About Good (6), Good (20), VG (29), Fine (7), VF (16), EF (19), and AU (3). This is a useful guide showing that most coins in this sample were well worn indicating decades in circulation.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the November 2021 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $102,000.