Jeff Ambio: The only known obverse die of the 1875-CC eagle is readily identifiable by the presence of a shallow die lump along the right side of the letter Y in LIBERTY. The date is fairly well centered in the field with the digits slanting down slightly from left to right. On the reverse, the mintmark is high with the second C almost totally to the right of the tip of the lowermost arrow feather. The first C is a bit higher than the second and more softly impressed.

Rusty Goe: The Specie Resumption Act and vigorous activity on Nevada's Comstock Lode pointed to an even more productive year in 1875 at the two western mints. Yet, as always at the start of this new season, the officers at the branch in Carson City found themselves in the position of having to justify that their plant deserved the small fraction of the workload available to it in its region. By the end of the year, the Carson Mint would set another personal record for coinage; yet still only one-eighth to one-seventh of the total produced on the Pacific Coast.

Gold coin output dipped slightly in 1875 at the Carson City Mint. The mintage of 7,715 1875-CC eagles more than halved the output from 1874, and corresponded more closely with the totals from the mint's first four years. Curiously, the Nevada branch, with its minimal emission, dominated in the production of $10 gold pieces, as the Philadelphia Mint delivered only 100 examples that year, and the Bay Area coiners failed to deliver any eagles for the first time in its 21-year existence.

Q. David Bowers: From a Carson City mintage of 7,715 eagles in 1875 this is a first-class rarity. I estimate that 60 to 80 exist across the board, and Rusty Goe is a bit more liberal. As to how many are Mint State, this can be debated. One? Two? As many as four? Whatever the situation, here indeed is a key issue in any grade and a prize in AU or a bit finer. Again, all were circulated in the West where they saw long and hard use.

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 $64,625.