Carson City Double Eagles
 

The first year of coinage operations for the Carson City mint was 1870, which continued to strike Liberty Head double eagles until 1893 - in addition to subordinate silver and gold denominations – with breaks of non-activity during the years of 1880 through 1881 and then from 1886 through 1888.. In all, there are 19 different $20 Liberty double eagle coins minted. Interestingly, the combined total mintage of all Carson City double eagles equals 864,128 pieces – a quantity which represents nearly half of all the individual mintages within the entire series of all Liberty double eagles! In fact, 10 of the Carson City double eagles are represented within the top 25 coins having the lowest mintage!

Carson City double eagles can be divided into three groups, based upon original mintage, the estimated number to have survived, certified population records and published prices.

The first group contains only one coin – the 1870-CC issue. When production began, only 3,789 gold double eagles were made this year by the Carson City mint, creating an instant rarity even back then. It appears as though many have been melted since then, as a combined total of only 58 coins have been certified by both PCGS and NGC (includes duplicate submissions) and reliable estimates place the number of survivors in the vicinity of 40-45 pieces. This issue was and remains prohibitively rare, and is difficult and quite expensive to acquire, so it has been left out of our price analysis since information on value is sparse and inconclusive.

The second group consists of those issues that are Rare to Very Rare and includes the 1871-CC, 1872-CC, 1873-CC, 1878-CC, 1879-CC, 1885-CC and 1891-CC. These seven issues have an average mintage of 15,000 coins each, with an average certified total of only 495 coins per issue. Not a whole lot to go around! The mint increased production of the double eagles from 1871 through 1873 to an average of slightly more than 22,000 coins per year. Thereafter, it seemed that during the period after 1873, the Carson City was only interested in producing as many of the larger denominations as they could manufacture (1874-1876). Then, however, in 1877, mintages for all gold coins dropped off and we find that production was seriously curtailed beginning in 1878, when all of the mints, especially Carson City, were primarily occupied with the production of silver dollars as a result of the Bland-Allison Act.  

The production of double eagles ceased during the years of 1880 and 1881, when the Carson City mint was only concerned with issuing the smaller gold $10 eagle and $5 half eagle denominations. Production of double eagles commenced then again in 1882 and continued strong until 1885, when gold and silver minting operations of that mint were again suspended, but not until 9,450 double eagles were created – and no other gold coins – again creating a rare issue. The cessation of operations was due to the extreme expense of coinage in comparison to the benefits. According to the mint director, costs were as high as 18% of the value of local deposits in 1885. At the time, Carson City was hardly a large city, with a population of only about 4,000 people, and overall population in the state was declining.

1891 was an odd year for the mint, as it produced only 5,000 double eagles that year – the second lowest mintage of the entire series – while the production of the smaller gold denominations of $10 eagles and $5 half eagles was in fact, the highest for those issues. The 1891 is a very rare issue today.

These coins represented in this second group have had an interesting price history over the past ten years. Beginning in 2000, published prices for this series remained predominantly flat until 2004, when the general market determined the Carson City issues to be undervalued when compared to the common-date issues. Common-date coins had been increasing steadily with the spot price of gold. This price increase took on an ascending staircase pattern, without any let-up, until June of 2009, when a correction took place. As we will point out later, this correction only occurred with coins primarily from the first and second groups, while demand for the third group continued to bolster prices. This correction was due to the public auction of a hoard of extremely undesirable examples – many of them – that sold for far less than one would have normally expected. Author’s Note:

Having been present at the auction, this author also noted that there were only four, yes four, bidders in the audience that evening. Needless-to-say, there wasn’t much competition for the coins being sold!

The following graphs represent the sum total of the monthly published prices for each most actively collected grades for this second group:

Prices for the third group over the past ten years have demonstrated a remarkable resilience to any kind of price downturns. It seems as though the opportunity to acquire these least expensive of all the Carson City double eagles far outweighs the price paid – especially as these coins continue to increase in value (a the graphs below demonstrate).

We need to offer another perspective on this coin group, however, as the word “common” is really not that practical as a description. While the “common” date coins for the entire Liberty double eagle series have a certified population on average of well-over 10,000 coins for most grades, the Carson City coins in the third group have an average total certified population of less than 500 coins each!

Demand for these coins far out-weigh the available supply, so we are not surprised to see that these coins have steadily increased in value, even despite the price correction that took place in June of 2009 for the Rare and Very Rare issues.

The following graphs represent the sum total of the monthly published prices for each most actively collected grades for this third group over a ten year period of time:

CONCLUSION: These are issues that are always in demand, are highly collectible and extremely liquid at any time in a cycle. With support of a rising spot gold price forcing prices for common date double eagle higher, these Carson City coins, though the published prices for these coins lag the general market somewhat, it’s easy to predict their future price.  Call Coin Trader Now @ 866.603.1938 to get started.