Jeff Ambio: The 1991 book The Comprehensive Encyclopedia of United States Liberty Seated Quarters by Larry Briggs describes only two die marriages for the 1875-CC quarter. Briggs 2-B is identifiable by the placement of the second C in the mintmark directly under the junction of the feather and stem.

Rusty Goe: On December 31, 1874, the Carson Daily Appeal teamed with the Lyon County Times in Dayton, Nevada, just 12 miles east of Carson City, to urge Congress to support Nevada's mint. The Dayton newspaper called for residents of Virginia City, Silver City, Gold Hill, Carson City, and its own town to unite in their efforts to impel the Nevada legislature to "memorialize Congress to promptly grant the needed appropriation."

From the latter part of 1873 through June 30, 1875, the coiners in Carson City had not manufactured any new quarters: none in 1874, and none in the first half of 1875. We can trace at least a partial explanation to the advent of the twenty-cent piece.

Advocates of this new denomination had stimulated the movement to abolish quarters in the Pacific states. Members of the press as well as political leaders out West pressured Washington, DC not to have quarters minted for circulation in states such as California and Nevada.

Throughout most of 1875, Carson Mint workers focused their silver coinage production on dimes, half dollars, and trade dollars. They also contributed their token share of twenty-cent pieces, as well as a commendable output of gold denominations, mostly in the form of double eagles.

Superintendent Crawford's persistence in making appeals to his superiors in Washington, DC, paid off when the government granted his request to acquire a second, albeit smaller, coin press. With two presses rattling at full capacity, output increased systematically as each month zipped by in the second half of the year.

By the last month of the year, it appeared as if, just as in 1874, no twenty-five-cent pieces would spill out of the Carson Mint. Suddenly in December, Superintendent Crawford received an order from his boss in Washington, DC to ship a half-million dollar order of subsidiary silver coins to a subtreasury in Boston. The directive specifically requested that Crawford send half dollars, twenty-cent pieces, dimes, and quarters.

If not for that end-of-year 140,000-piece run, we would not have 1875-CC quarters today. Interestingly, the Carson Mint did not earmark any of those two-bit pieces for local circulation; but instead packed them up and shipped them to Massachusetts.

Q. David Bowers: As noted below this quarter dollar is underappreciated in the marketplace. Regarding rarity, guesses are plentiful, facts are scarce. Rusty Goe and I suggest a total population of 250 to 400 coins of which 40 to 55 are EF to AU and only 20 to 30 Mint State. Unlike today, the 1875-CC was viewed as being especially rare in commentaries of a generation ago.

The March 1981 number of The Gobrecht Journal contained an article by John W. McCloskey, "The 1875-CC Quarter," which paid tribute to its rarity, noting that "the listed mintage of 140,000 pieces doesn't stand out as anything unusual in a series that has 45 other dates with lower figures given. Yet in terms of availability it is one of the most difficult dates in the series to find. Please note that I do not mean to imply that the 1875-CC quarter is prohibitively rare, but only wish to indicate that it is just not available in today's market."

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 $17,625.