Jeff Ambio: The obverse die used to strike all known 1879-CC double eagles is easily identifiable by the presence of several small die rust lumps below the digits 1, 8 and 9 in the date. The most prominent of these lumps is centered below the digit 9. The date itself is evenly spaced and set a bit low in the field. The CC mintmark on the reverse is generally centered over the space between the words TWENTY and DOLLARS. The first C is just to the right of the letter Y in TWENTY and the second C is just over the extreme left edge of the letter D in DOLLARS.

Rusty Goe: The implementation of specie redemption in January 1879 captured the attention of U.S. citizens in the early part of that year. To prepare for the redemption of Legal Tender notes, the Treasury had raised $142 million in gold coin, equivalent to about 40 percent of the $347 million in outstanding paper promises. The first day of resumption, January 2, 1879, set the stage for the rest of the year. A spokesman at the subtreasury in New York reported at the close of business that first day that his office had issued only $135,000 worth of gold coins in redemption for Legal Tender notes. The feared run on gold had not occurred.

Coiner Levi Dague had struck 8,915 double eagles before the Treasury suspended coinage operations in March 1879. He would deliver only 1,793 more pieces (the 1880 Mint Director's report for some reason says 1,773) in the work-shortened second half of the year.

Similar to the 1878-CC, the 1879-CC with its small output, shows a high survival rate, perhaps five percent. Yet, also peculiar to the former year, examples of the latter make infrequent auction appearances, especially in Mint State.

Q. David Bowers: The Carson City Mint struck 10,708 double eagles in 1879, once again creating a rarity. Today this issue is scarce in all grades and is very rare in Mint State. I estimate that 250 to 350 survive all told -- a small number when you consider the popularity of Carson City coins today.

This remains one of the more elusive Carson City Mint double eagles despite the augmentation in recent decades by imports. VF and EF are the usual grades, but AU coins come on the market with frequency. Virtually all Mint State coins are at or close to the 60 level, and some could just as likely be called AU.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the Fairmont Collection, Hendricks Set, where it realized $84,000.