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Jeff Ambio: Brilliant, sharply struck and possessed of vibrant satin white luster, this lovely Gem has the appearance that Morgan dollar collectors find so appealing. An exceptionally well preserved example of the key date 1889-CC, there are no significant abrasions to overall smooth-looking surfaces.
Rusty Goe: Republican Benjamin Harrison defeated Democratic incumbent Grover Cleveland in the presidential election in November 1888. Residents in Carson City, Nevada celebrated as they waited in eager expectation for Harrison's inauguration in March 1889. The newly elected president's appointment of a silver supporter, William Windom, as Treasury Secretary encouraged Carsonites as well as residents near all mining districts.
At the time Harrison had assumed his position as the 23rd President of the United States, Nevada's two U.S. senators, John P. Jones and William M. Stewart, and its freshman House representative, Horace F. Bartine, lobbied hard to get the coin presses running again at the Carson Mint. From the time Superintendent James Crawford had died in March 1885 until the end of 1888, President Cleveland had desired to close the Nevada mint. Only through the persuasive efforts of Senators Jones and Stewart (the latter returned to office in 1887) did the Carson Mint survive abolishment, albeit only operating modestly as a refinery and an assay office.
In April 1889, Senator Stewart sent a letter to Secretary Windom in which be built a powerful case for the reopening of the Carson Mint. After enumerating every unfair practice waged against it through the years, Stewart made a passionate appeal to Windom for the resumption of coinage operations at the Carson Mint. Furthermore, Stewart requested, "that there shall be no discrimination, whatever, made against the Carson Mint in regard to any of its operations...."
Six weeks after Harrison's inauguration, news flashed back to Nevada that the sounds of heavy machinery rattling and clanging inside the Carson Mint would once again ring out. Reno's Weekly Gazette and Stockman on April 18, 1889 reported that, "The order opening the Carson Mint for the coinage of silver and gold will meet with the hearty approval of every man, woman, and child in this State...." To give due credit, the article concluded, "we say all glory be to [President] Harrison, and Senators Stewart and Jones."
The government proceeded with its next order of business by replacing what few Democrats still held positions at the mint with more supportive Republicans. The president appointed long-time Carson City resident Samuel Coleman Wright as superintendent to replace the disgruntled William Garrard. The Daily Nevada State Journal on May 11, 1889 said, "The appointment of Samuel C. Wright as Superintendent of the Carson Mint, will be very generally acceptable to the Republicans of the State." In a display of unbridled optimism, the paper said, "The Journal hopes the Mint will soon be in full blast and coining four millions of silver dollars per month."
Superintendent Wright spent much of May and June traveling back and forth between Carson City and San Francisco and receiving an orientation on the minting business. He took his position in his office on the second floor of the Carson Mint on July 1, 1889. Newspapers published frequent updates on the progress that Wright and his crew of 73 employees were making to get everything in working order. Predictions of an August resumption of coinage operations, which soon got postponed until September, proved premature. The three coin presses and much of the other machinery, having lain idle for over four years needed maintenance and in some cases mending.
Finally, on Thursday, October 10, Coiner Charles H. Colburn and his assistants delivered the first silver dollar dated 1889, bearing the "CC" mintmark. Newspapers capitalized on the event and proclaimed how the Carson Mint had just issued its first coins since March 1885.
By the end of the year Colburn and company had delivered 350,000 1889-CC silver dollars, and nearly $620,000 face value in $20 gold pieces. On December 6, 1889, the Daily Nevada State Journal reported that, "Bright new silver dollars, just issued from the Carson Mint, are in general circulation." And in its December 27, 1889 edition, the Journal announced, "Mr. S.C. Wright, Supt. of the United States Mint at Carson, is now authorized to pay out silver dollars in exchange for deposits of gold coins...."
For all of those Nevada residents who had not given up on the Carson Mint's chances of survival during those dark years between 1885 and 1888, the sight of those shiny new silver dollars in circulation in 1889 brought a sense of vindication. At the time, no one knew that one day 1889-CC Morgan silver dollars would thrill the hearts of collectors because of their relative rarity. Examples of that date that have survived in the highest states of preservation, such as the one offered in the Battle Born collection, are treasured for their rarity and beauty.
Q. David Bowers: Rusty Goe estimates that 11,000 to 15,000 1889-CC silver dollars exist in total, of which 4,000 to 7,500 are Uncirculated and 4,000 to 5,000 are in EF to AU grades. My view, demonstrated below, is that extant Mint State coins number closer to 7,500, still in Rusty's range. That said, Mint State coins are rare in comparison to the demand for them, and the number appearing on the market is far less than would be expected from numismatic accounts and research of several decades. The 1889-CC in Mint State is far and away the rarest Carson City Morgan dollar and handily outdistances its closest rivals, the elusive 1879-CC and 1893-CC. As such, it has acquired an aura of fame in recent years. Offerings of coins in higher grades are apt to be one at a time (instead of by the roll or bag). A Mint State coin is a candidate for a picture and effusive description in an auction catalogue. Where are the others?
After the great Treasury release of dollars in 1962-1964 I interviewed dealers, investors, and collectors involved. Most of my findings were printed in Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States, 1993.
When Carson City silver dollars were being paid out from the Cash Room at the Treasury Department in Washington in the mid-19th century (before the rush starting in 1962), many thousands of all issues 1878-1893 were distributed, except 1889-CC. Apparently, only a few single coins and rolls were given out, some of them as early as 1933-1934. By the 1950s, possibly only a few hundred coins remained on hand at the Cash Room. I have found no record of bags being distributed from Washington during that decade or any time later.
It is probably the case that more 1889-CC dollars were stored at the San Francisco Mint and/or in Federal Reserve stocks in the West than at the Treasury Building. In 1925 and 1926, quantities of 1889-CCs were paid out at face value from storage at the San Francisco Mint. There was not much numismatic interest in mintmarked Morgan dollars at the time, and it is likely that nearly all went into general circulation. At that time silver dollars were in common everyday use in the Rocky Mountain states. Scattered bags that were released then and later were all from the San Francisco Mint vaults, so far as I know. In the 1950s a bag of 1,000 pieces was released in Montana, followed by another in the early 1960s. Apparently, the first bag contained many heavily marked coins, "sliders" if you will, of a quality that today would be called AU-55 or 58. In addition, at least two intact bags were in existence in 1976 (one of these is from the Ben Stack group mentioned below). Probably, these have not been distributed, although it is hard to imagine that anyone with 1,000 silver dollars, each having a market value into five figures, would not let go of some of them. However, such things happen. You may remember the highly-publicized "Wells Fargo Hoard," distributed in numismatic circles via Ron Gillio in 1997-1998, brought to market thousands of Gems as part of a hoard of 19,900 coins said to have been stored in a Wells Fargo bank vault. The majority (but not all) were certified by PCGS. By January 2000, over 17,500 had been sold.
Returning to the 1889-CC, Harry Warner of Mill Valley, California, told Walter Breen that he once owned a bag of 1,000 coins. Ben Stack told Harry J. Forman that he bought two bags by advertising (1954) in the Las Vegas Sun, and another was acquired in this way or by buying it separately. One of these bags went to Irving Davidoff, owner of the Klondyke [sic] Coin Exchange in New York City; another was dispersed at $140 per roll of 20 coins ($7 apiece); the third was still owned by Ben Stack as of February 1976, for he offered it to me at that time.
Only one solitary coin was left in the Treasury when the government decided to hold back CC dollars after payouts were halted in March 1964!
Today the offering of any Mint State 1889-CC in MS-63 or better is a notable event, and the Battle Born MS-65 must be viewed as especially memorable.
The following reality check using population report figures of May 2012 may come as a huge surprise to the countless collectors and dealers who believe such reports are the be-all and end-all of numismatic research concerning the rarity of any given coin.
Scenario No. 1: The GSA sold 962,638 1884-CC dollars, nearly all in Mint State. Of that number 89,406 grading events have taken place for Mint State coins at PCGS and NGC combined, with the actual amount of different coins being even lower. Stated another way only 9 percent of the GSA figure has been certified, never mind that there are other Mint State coins that did not come from the GSA!
Scenario No. 2: Let's say that 6,000 Mint State 1889-CC dollars exist, or somewhat fewer than my estimate. Of these only 974 have been certified! And, this is for an issue worth on the long side of $10,000 each and a poster example of a candidate for resubmission!
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Statistical Snapshot*
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Service
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Grade
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Population in Battle Born Grade
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Population in Higher Grade
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Population in All Grades
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Survival Estimate
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Mintage
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PCGS
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—
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1
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1 (MS-68)
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5,238‡
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—
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—
|
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NGC
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MS-65
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5
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1 (MS-65PL)†
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4,986§
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—
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—
|
|
—
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—
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—
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—
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10,224
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11,000-15,000
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350,000
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* As of July 2012
† Census report shows one MS-67 example, but this is the same as the PCGS MS-68 piece.
‡ Includes PL and DMPL designations.
§ Includes PL and DPL designations, and the sole GSA example of this date.
Combined PCGS and NGC population: only 6; with a mere two finer (MS-68 PCGS finest).
PCGS# 7190.
From the Battle Born Collection. Earlier from Heritage's August 2008 sale, lot 1783; Rusty Goe, September 2008.
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