Rusty Goe: Frank D. Hetrich, who had replaced Henry F. Rice as the coin factory's superintendent on July 1, 1873, tendered his resignation a year later. We don't know why. Reportedly, Hetrich had stellar credentials as a mint man, had initiated and overseen essential tenant improvements in the refinery department, and had a good approval rating with Carson City residents. Yet by August 1874, he called it quits.

In its first four and a half years in business, three men -- Curry, Rice, and Hetrich -- had served as its superintendent. As the Comstock Lode's bullion output multiplied with each passing week, the pressure to find a man with stamina and vision to administer it increased.

At the appointed time, James Crawford, an assemblyman in Nevada's state legislature and a onetime foreman at a Carson River mill, stepped into the role of superintendent in September 1874. If we say the Carson Mint was a franchise of the Treasury Department, we could say that James Crawford became the foundational rock that sustained it through its busiest and most exciting ten-year period. Hetrich turned over a productive and well-run operation to the new superintendent and Crawford drove it to its full potential.

Seeing that business had increased nearly five-fold from 1873 to 1874, Crawford immediately requisitioned (although its delivery was delayed for months) a new coin press, albeit a smaller one, to supplement the output of the press that had singly served the Carson Mint since opening day in 1870. A politician by avocation and temperament, and a man committed to the growth of Nevada's mining industry and to the success of Carson City's economy, Crawford made trips to Washington, DC, and San Francisco to plead the case of his state, his city, and his mint.

The Carson Mint yielded six denominations in 1874, three in silver, and three in gold. Of the nearly 1.6 million pieces (1,373,200 of them were trade dollars) minted that year, nearly 400,000 of them had rolled off the press before June 30. We don't know how many of the remaining almost 1.2 million pieces workers at the mint produced between July 1 and when Crawford took charge in September, but it appears as if the new superintendent received a thorough introduction to the coin-making process during his first few months on the job. His crew banged out approximately one million trade dollars in the last quarter of 1874, and about 58,000 of that year's output of double eagles.

The paltry run of 10,817 dimes, the lowest production total for that denomination in the Carson Mint's history, had come under Hetrich's watch in early 1874. Hetrich had reserved six of those dimes for delivery to the annual Assay Commission. Two of them were tested: one a little overweight, the other slightly underweight, both in compliance with U.S. Mint standards.

Possibly three 1874-CC dimes survive today in Mint State condition. Other than the 1873-CC No Arrows subtype, the 1874-CC is the indisputable key to the Carson City dime series; and experts agree that it is the rarest date in the entire Liberty Seated dime series (the 1873-CC No Arrows excluded).

Q. David Bowers: With a production of just 10,817, the 1874-CC issue takes the prize for low mintages among early Carson City dimes, the 1873-CC No Arrows excepted, of course. As is true of the others, these were routinely placed into circulation where they became worn. Rusty Goe estimates a total population of just 35 to 50 pieces, meaning that any example is a numismatic prize. Quite a few have surface porosity but not to the extent of the three earlier dates. Connoisseurship is again required. Regarding Mint State coins, there are several that have been graded at this level, making them slightly more available than the predecessors.

The same reverse die was used to strike all Carson City dimes from 1871 through 1874 inclusive. A tiny reverse crack develops on certain issues of the 1873 year, starting at the side of the ribbon to the upper right of the mintmark and continuing through the center of the second mintmark letter and slightly below center of the first C. The die crack remains, of course, on later strikings and is an easy way to tell whether an 1873-CC or 1874-CC is authentic (although other tests need to be done as well).

The edge reeding is more widely spaced than on dimes from the other mints.

Roster of 1874-CC With Arrows Liberty Seated Dimes in Mint State

1 | PCGS MS-63 | The Miles-Vanderbilt Specimen

• April 1969, Our (Stack's) sale of the R.L. Miles, Jr. Collection, Lot 725
• March 2018, Our (Stack's Bowers Galleries) sale of the A.J. Vanderbilt Collection, Lot 10103

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2 | PCGS MS-63 | The Ebsen-Gardner Specimen

• June 1987, Superior's sale of the Buddy Ebsen Collection, Lot 786
• February 2003, Superior's Pre-Long Beach Auction, Lot 1360
• September 2003, Superior's Pre-Long Beach Elite Coin Auction, Lot 1490
• October 2014, Heritage's sale of the Eugene H. Gardner Collection, Part II, Lot 98274
An MS-64 listed on the NGC Census may represent a recent upgrade for this coin, or that entry might refer to the Norweb specimen (see below)

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3 | PCGS MS-62 | The Bolen-Kennywood-Battle Born Specimen

• Waldo E. "Pat" Bolen, Jr.
• November 1995, The Numisma '95 sale of the Waldo E. Bolen Collection of U.S. Dimes, Lot 2145
• January 2005, Our (American Numismatic Rarities') Kennywood Collection sale, Lot 378
• February 2005, Rusty Goe
• August 2012, Our sale of the Battle Born Collection of Carson City Mint Coinage, Lot 11106

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4 | PCGS MS-62 | The Munoz-Lovejoy Specimen

• June 1982, Superior's Miguel Munoz Collection Sale, Part IV, Lot 160
• October 1990, Our (Stack's) sale of the Allen F. Lovejoy Reference Collection of United States Dimes, Lot 392
• October 1997, Our (Stack's) Public Auction Sale, Lot 471
• March 2005, David Lawrence's sale of the Richmond Collection, Lot 1196
• July 2009, Our (Stack's) Treasures from the S.S. New York sale, Lot 407
This coin was previously certified MS-62 by NGC and is still listed on the census for that certification service.

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5 | Mint State | The Norweb Specimen

• Numismatic Gallery (Abe Kosoff and Abner Kreisberg)
• Ben Stack (Imperial Coin Company)
• July 29, 1954, Ambassador and Mrs. R. Henry Norweb
• October 1987, Our (Bowers and Merena's) sale of the Norweb Collection, Part I, Lot 540
• November 1989, Our (Bowers and Merena's) Saccone Collection sale, Lot 157
This coin is listed on the PCGS CoinFacts census of 1874-CC dimes with an estimated grade of MS-64. It may be the MS-64 listed on the NGC Census, or this piece may still remain uncertified in its current collection.

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6 | Mint State | The Nevada State Museum Specimen

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 $117,500.