Jeff Ambio: The two known die varieties of the 1871-CC Liberty eagle share the same reverse, which is a reuse of Reverse A of the first-year 1870-CC issue. The mintmark is small, round, and set high in the field well to the left of the lowermost arrow feather. Unlike Reverse B of the 1870-CC, the two Cs are level. On the obverse of the 1871-CC Winter 1-A variety the date is straight and level.

Rusty Goe: Superintendent Henry F. Rice's success in deploying a bullion fund, which allowed him to pay depositors promptly, and in gaining approval for his mint to accept custom assaying and refining work, had increased business substantially. Bullion deposits soared to over $5 million in 1871 compared to 1870's total of $266,000. This meant the Carson Mint had received nearly half of the precious metals mined on the Comstock in 1871. During the Big Bonanza period from 1874 through 1878, Nevada's coin factory would consider it fortunate to receive one fifth of the Comstock's yield.

Still, with the huge increase in bullion deposits in 1871, coinage production in Carson City, while advancing substantially from 1870's output, remained sparse. The Carson Mint turned out 4,225 eagles in the first half of the year and added 2,960 more in the second half. Some sources have reported that an additional 900 pieces were minted sometime between July and December; but I believe this has to do with fiscal-year versus calendar-year reporting.

Of the 7,185 1871-CC eagles struck (if we go with that figure), only two survivors are known in Mint State.

Q. David Bowers: 1871-CC eagles circulated in the American West with none being exported at the time and very few later. I estimate that about 100 circulated examples exist. VF is the order of the day, with a few EF coins known. Anything higher is extremely rare.

It is worth noting that not a single coin finer than EF appeared in David W. Akers' 1980 survey of auction sales.

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.