Rusty Goe: All attention turned to the new Bland-Allison Act silver dollars in 1878 and the demise of the unpopular trade dollar. By the end of the first quarter, Carson City Mint hands were devoting almost all of their energy to the new Morgan dollars.

The three working mints had produced millions of dollars worth of subsidiary silver coins between 1875 and the end of 1877. The untimely return of $22 million dollars worth of subsidiary silver coins that had spent the last 15 years scattered abroad in Central and South America, the West Indies, and in Canada bulged the Treasury's vaults to bursting. Since more than $36 million in silver coins had already been issued to redeem $23 million in fractional paper notes and $13 million in large-size currency ("greenbacks"), the government reckoned the time had come to cease production of subsidiary coinage.

The Carson City Mint coined 200,000 dimes in January 1878, and never issued another piece afterward. The other three silver denominations -- quarters, half dollars, and trade dollars -- extended their runs into February before their production came to an abrupt and final halt.
The substantially reduced mintage figure created a semi-key date out of the 1878-CC dime. Although not at all comparable in rarity to the "CC" dimes from 1871 to 1874, it is infinitely scarcer than its counterparts from 1875 to 1877. And even though the Carson coiners delivered the entire mintage of 1878 dimes in January that year, four varieties are available to specialists, one of which was struck from a worn-out 1877 reverse die.

Q. David Bowers: Bringing down the curtain on Carson City dime coinage is the 1878-CC. Regarding pieces at the Uncirculated level, Rusty Goe estimates that 65 to 80 exist in the marketplace, which seems reasonable. High grade specimens with excellent eye appeal appear infrequently on the market, giving this variety the aspect of a key date in the context of post-1874 Carson City coins of this denomination. Once again, population report data must be taken with the traditional grain of salt. It has been a popular practice to submit high grade coins multiple times, thus inflating the figures. Submission events can be a large number and the count of actual different coins can be a much smaller figure.

After this year there was no need for any more dimes for a while, production at San Francisco ceased as well, and mintages were at a low level at the Philadelphia Mint for the next three years. For the years from 1871 through 1878, dime production at the Carson City Mint came to 20,901,108 pieces with a face value of $2,090,110.80. During the same time span, 130,249,454 were produced in Philadelphia, breaking all records. The San Francisco Mint struck 39,598,614 dimes. Dimes were not struck at the New Orleans Mint after 1860 until 1891. That facility had been active from 1838 until it was closed in 1861 in the early times of the Civil War. It reopened in 1878, but dimes, quarters, and half dollars were not made until over a decade later. Although silver dollars were coined after 1878, Carson City production of lower denominations ended forever.

This issue is known with both Type I and Type II reverses, distinguishing marks are slight, and those who pursue microscopically different varieties can enjoy locating these throughout the era of Carson City dimes of higher mintage, and perhaps even discovering new varieties.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the June 2013 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $9,400.