Jeff Ambio: The date on all known 1871-CC double eagles is relatively high in the field with the first digit 1 very close to, but not touching, the base of Liberty's neck. The digits 71 are also close, but do not touch. On the reverse, the CC mintmark is placed somewhat to the left with the first C higher than the second. The first C is just to the right of center over the letter N in TWENTY and the second C is over the right edge of the same letter.

Rusty Goe: Gold production had influenced global monetary policies for decades. In 1871, California and Australia, whose mining rushes had paralleled one another for over 20 years, still provided the bulk of the world's supply of the yellow metal. Russia, with its long history of rich alluvial deposits (those mixed with sand and gravel found in streambeds or chunked in glaciers), showed abundant returns at this time as well. Montana's miners had made significant discoveries. Nevada's Comstock Lode, which had attracted many to its craggy hills, appeared on the verge of a major expulsion of precious metals, possibly divided equally between gold and silver.

The Treasury Department had consistently monitored bullion yields in the states and territories so it could predict how much specie (a reference to coin money) its mints could execute. Treasury officers also searched for improved processes for the nation's coin plants and assay offices to refine and separate the gold and silver flowing in. In his 1871 annual report, Mint Director James Pollock told how the Philadelphia Mint and the New York Assay Office had "been experimenting ... with the chlorine refining of gold, recently invented and perfected in Australia." He called the invention "a very remarkable one," and went into technical details about how it worked. He indicated that the process was cheap and rapid, "and makes the most ductile [malleable] gold." Pollock had earlier mentioned "the peculiar character of some of the Western bullion." He said, "The presence of sulphur, antimony, lead, and arsenic ... frequently makes the Nevada silver brittle and refractory [resistant to heat, unmanageable]."

The workers at the Carson Mint, according to Nevada historian Howard Hickson, submerged their bullion "into large, thirty-three gallon porcelain pots [filled] with ... nitric acid," a more expensive process of refining metal. In future years, as Pollock had stated in 1871, "the sulphuric acid process," in the case of "silver containing a small proportion of gold ... is greatly to be preferred." The chlorine process would not prove adaptable to the Carson Mint's operations; but over time the officers would consider the use of the less expensive sulfuric acid process.

In 1871, everyone at the Carson Mint from Superintendent H.F. Rice to the porter to the watchmen, were learning the rudiments of running, tidying, and guarding a coin-making facility. Granville Hosmer, who had replaced Ezra Staley as coiner in 1870, had learned well how many pieces of each denomination he could press out in an hour. The Nevada State Journal on January 7, 1871, reported that, "The press for giving the coin the final stamp is about the finest piece of machinery known." It went on to say that Hosmer's coin press was "capable of striking off eighty pieces per minute," which in the case of "$20 [gold] pieces [equaled] $96,000 per hour."

As it turned out, Hosmer never got a chance in early 1871 to strike the maximum quantity of 4,800 double eagles in a single hour. His total output for that denomination between January and June was only 4,762 -- 2,222 of those coming in May. As Comstock miners continued to bring in bullion deposits, Hosmer would have more blanks (or planchets) on which to work. The local press delighted in informing locals of significant deposits, such as the $80,000 delivered one day in April.

In the second half of 1871, business picked up briskly. Hosmer banged out 9,925 more double eagles. He had nearly quadrupled the mintage of those large gold coins from the year before. (For some reason, some sources have reported, over the past few decades that Hosmer delivered 2,700 additional double eagles in 1871. Yet this conflicts with Bureau of the Mint statistics.)

By October, the aggregate monthly total for the execution of coins and bars had topped the half million dollar mark. In December, the Sacramento Daily Union reported that, "The ... Branch Mint in Carson is doing a heavy business just now." In a two and a half day period in the first week of that month, the Union said, "there was received at this institution over four tons of bullion, valued at upward of $350,000." The mint had just executed nearly $660,000 in coins and bars in November. It closed out its second year in business with a flourish.

Q. David Bowers: Of the 1871-CC double eagles, Rusty Goe estimates 265 to 315 in total survive, with three or four Uncirculated. In 1982 David W. Akers stated that he had never seen an AU. Since that time some have come to light, but the 1871-CC remains rare in all grades and particularly rare EF or finer. In 2003 there were just two Uncirculated pieces certified, an MS-61 and MS-63, both by NGC. These probably represent coins found overseas.

It has been my long-standing opinion that the distribution of Carson City gold coins in the early 1870s was conducted quite differently from that of later years. In the later expanse of the series, mid-1870s onward, many Carson City gold coins were shipped to San Francisco (sometimes after having been lightly circulated) and from San Francisco were exported -- including to Europe and South America. In sharp contrast, double eagles of the early 1870s seemed to have stayed closer to home, and to have circulated extensively on the West Coast, particularly in Nevada and in other inland areas. Thus, for all early Carson City gold coins such grades as VF and EF are par for the course and are extremely desirable, with Mint State pieces being virtually nonexistent. Toward the end of the double eagle series, the opposite is largely true -- high-grade coins such as EF and AU are the rule, not the exception, and scattered Mint State coins are seen, the last including some that remained stateside, but mostly coins repatriated since the 1950s.

The study of over 300 auction sale catalogs by David W. Akers in 1982 provides a glimpse of the perceived status of this date and mint 30 years ago:

After the famous 1870-CC, the 1871-CC is the rarest double eagle from the Carson City Mint. Compared to all other twenties, the 1871-CC ranks in the top 15 percent of the series in overall rarity and is tied for first place in rarity according to average grade. Few dates in the series are generally graded worse than the 1871-CC. The 1871-CC is like the 1870-CC in that respect, and about all one can expect to find is the heavily abraded Fine or Very Fine. A strictly graded EF is very rare and I have never personally seen one that I would call AU.

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 $329,000.