Rusty Goe: Sometime around James Crawford's first-year anniversary as the Carson City Mint's superintendent, his new coiner Levi Dague was using a modified reverse die to make dimes that displayed the "CC" mintmark below the wreath-ribbon; the same location it had before Chief Engraver William Barber had experimented with his "above wreath" design. We don't know how many of the Mintmark Below Bow dimes Dague struck in 1875, but by the end of the year the combined totals of both varieties that he and former Coiner Doane had made had risen to just over 4.6 million pieces.

In mid-September, a reporter at Reno, Nevada's Nevada State Journal wrote that the prospects for the Carson Mint being even busier in the future looked good. He said bullion deposits and coinage production were "showing big sights." His firsthand account of his visit to the mint gave readers a glimpse into the bustle of activity at that place. "Yesterday in the hall and adjacent offices," he wrote, "there was piled up nearly a million dollars in bullion and coin awaiting shipment."

Our estimates of how many Mintmark Below Bow dimes exist today are more clouded because of the lack of information about how many of them were made. The surviving populations suggest that there are two to three Mintmark Above Bow dimes for every one with the Mintmark Below Bow. In the future, we may discover that there are far fewer examples in all grades of both varieties, and especially the Mintmark Below Bow version.

Q. David Bowers: The 1875-CC Mintmark Below Bow represents the second major variety of this year. It is estimated that of the production of 4,645,000, about 25 percent were of this variety, making it scarce in comparison to the style with Mintmark Above Bow. However, enough exist across various grades that finding a choice example will not be difficult. Even in Mint State they cross the auction block with some frequency. The typical coin has very nice eye appeal.

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 $4,993.