Rusty Goe: On April 20, 1870, the first 3,540 quarters with the "CC" mintmark entered the world. A month later, on May 24, the coiner delivered 1,400 more quarter dollars, and on August 15, just a few weeks before Superintendent Curry resigned to make a run for Nevada's lieutenant governor's position, the final 3,400 were struck.

No discussion about 1870-CC quarters comes full circle unless mention is made of the incomparable Eliasberg specimen. Graded MS-64 by NGC it is the only Mint State example of this revered date. Eliasberg acquired it when he bought the Clapp family collection in 1942.

John. M. Clapp and his son, John H. Clapp, kept a meticulous notebook that listed their coin purchases between 1891 and about 1910. At times however, incorrect entries were made in this notebook. The one for the 1870-CC quarter is a prime example. In the Clapp notebook, it lists the Chapman brothers' Harlan P. Smith sale of June 1906 as the source of this coin. The problem is, the Harlan P. Smith sale did not offer an 1870-CC quarter in it. Finally, we came upon the Chapman brothers' William B. Wetmore sale from June 29, 1906, just one day after that firm concluded its Smith sale. We see that Mr. Wetmore's dazzling 1870-CC quarter sold for $10, the exact price listed in the Clapp notebook.

Q. David Bowers: Most 1870-CC quarter dollars were placed into circulation regionally, as in the East and Midwest silver coins were not seen in circulation. No numismatic attention was paid to them at all, and in time most specimens became well worn.

Likely somewhere between 45 and 65 examples exist today, each a highly prized rarity no matter what the grade. The finest is thought to have been the Eliasberg Collection coin, cataloged by my staff and me and auctioned in 1997 for the then remarkable price of $187,000 -- far and away a new record.

As is true of the Carson City dimes of this era and also the half dollars and dollars, today in the marketplace grades such as Fine are about par and are highly desired. However, while dimes of this early period are typically seen with porous surfaces, that is not true of the other denominations.

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 $188,000.