Rusty Goe: Local newspapers in Carson City never hesitated to publish praiseworthy reports about its mint's achievements. In August 1877, the Carson Appeal reflected back on over seven and a half years and compared coinage outputs from the first four and a half years with those of the past three. There had been a 2,000 percent increase between the two time periods. "The greater part of this notable increase," wrote the Appeal reporter, occurred in the two-year stretch between 1876 and 1877. He said, "The silver coinage alone [showed] an increase of about 3,500 percent."

Ever since Superintendent Crawford's acquisition of the third (and largest) coin press, his dedicated staff had kept all three stamping machines banging out silver and gold pieces practically nonstop. Crawford received frequent orders from the Treasury Department to ship "CC" mintmarked silver coins across the nation. Reporters often wrote about seeing canvas bags and boxes full of coins, totaling one to two million dollars in face value, lining floors inside the mint waiting to be hauled a block north to the special spur of the Virginia and Truckee Railroad.

Quarter dollar production in 1877 followed the same record-setting pace as the previous year, and at one point even appeared as if it would top 1876's total. In at least three of the months the quarter-dollar output exceeded 500,000 pieces, and in November, 824,000 1877-CC twenty-five-cent pieces joined 190,000 dimes and 1,000 $20 gold pieces in the coiner's workbook. At year-end, the mintage figure for 1877-CC quarters fell 752,000 pieces below the previous year's total. Still, at nearly 4.2 million, 1877's final tally ensured that a healthy quantity of quarters from that year would survive into subsequent centuries; even if the extant population totaled only a fraction of one percent of the original output.

Q. David Bowers: The 1877-CC is likewise plentiful in numismatic circles today. The estimated population of pieces in all grades is 4,500 to 7,750, with 600 to 900 in Mint State. Choice and Gem examples appear on the market with some regularity and are usually quite attractive. However, connoisseurship is advised. Similar to the 1876-CC, the 1877-CC is known with a wide number of varieties differing from each other microscopically. These can be interesting to contemplate.

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 $15,275.