Jeff Ambio: All 1878-CC Liberty Seated half dollars were struck from the same die marriage. On the obverse, there are numerous small die lumps within the drapery between the shield and the outside of Liberty's shin. On the reverse, there is a small diagonal die line inside the bottom of the letter O in GOD. The first C in the mintmark is noticeable higher than the second.

Rusty Goe: In 1877, the California and the Consolidated Virginia mines in Storey County, Nevada reported a combined yield of nearly $32.65 million in gold and silver ore. In 1876, these two mines had extracted slightly more than $30 million worth of ore from their 10-acre parcel in the heart of Virginia City's mining district. In 1878, the yield would decrease to $19 million, still a respectable showing, but obviously an operation in decline. Further proof of this came in 1879, when the two powerhouse companies tallied slightly more than $5 million. After that, the most romantic era in U.S. mining history lost all its momentum.

Yet even if the Comstock's incomparable riches were inexhaustible, and even if the Carson Mint continued to receive its reduced ration of those riches, what would it do with the silver portion of them after the cessation of the Specie Resumption Act provisions that required surplus supplies of subsidiary coins? The Treasury Department had announced it had stockpiles of small change and that the mints would cease making dimes, quarters, and half dollars after February 28, 1878.

The Carson Mint struck 62,000 1878-CC half dollars in February, the lone output of that denomination that year. They would be packed up and shipped to other parts of the country along with the dimes and quarters that the coiners delivered in January and February. The era of Liberty Seated coinage struck at the Carson Mint ended.

In correlation with many of the other silver issues produced at the Carson City Mint from 1870 to 1878, only a fraction of one percent of the 62,000 1878-CC half dollars survives today. In Mint State condition, examples of this date are extremely rare. You can count the number of Gem quality specimens on one hand.

Q. David Bowers: Euphoria at the Carson City Mint came to an end in 1878, when the Treasury, quite sated with newly minted silver coins plus a flood of those released by hoarders, no longer demanded record production. However, not all was lost, as in that year silver dollars of the Morgan design were first struck.

The 1878-CC half dollar stands as a key date today. Rusty Goe estimates about 125 to 175 exist across all grades, of which 20 to 30 are EF to AU, nicely collectible, but only eight to ten in true Mint State. Accordingly, finding a beautiful Uncirculated example can be a prime challenge. As the curtain came down on half dollar production, the total mintage from 1870 to 1878 amounted to 7,608,927. In comparison, at the Philadelphia Mint the figure was 29,527,070.

For this year only one pair of dies has been identified, and all coins have 143 edge reeds. Wiley and Bugert note, "at least one altered 1878 Philadelphia specimen with an added mintmark has been seen, and others could exist. Check the reed count of a suspected piece." The same writers note that Philadelphia coins of 1878 come with 152, 153, or 156 reeds. 1878-S, a prime rarity, exists with 147 reeds, but no one would ever want to convert one of these to appear as an 1878-CC.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the August 2013 Chicago ANA Auction, where it realized $41,125.