General Comments
1873-CC is a key and sought-after date in the Liberty Seated dollar series, because of both its extremely
low mintage and its status as one of the two rarest Liberty Seated dollar products of the Carson City mint.
Its mintage is considerably higher than its cousin, the 1871-CC, but apparently, many examples were caught
up in the preparations for the new Trade Dollar series and melted prior to reaching circulation. Finding
problem-free examples requires patient searching. High-grade examples are extremely rare. Only 8 mint
state coins are listed in the current grading service population reports, with another 25 in various AU
grades. The highest graded is MS65. Both PCGS and NGC show one example in this grade. NGC shows one
additional example in MS64. It’s likely that these three records represent a single coin, or two at most.
One AU coin disappeared from the population reports since the first edition of our book was published,
while the mint state coins increased by 2. It’s likely that one of the AU58 examples was upgraded. Lower
grades are also very difficult to locate. Problem-free low-grade examples, below VF20, are extremely rare.
Only 22 coins have been graded in that range. Population statistics are as of February, 2019.
1873-CC examples are usually found with strikes that are good but not sharp. As with most CCs LIBERTY is
often weaker than would be expected for the grade. They often display slight softness on the star centrals
and very slight softness on the wing feathers. High-grade examples are always prooflike or semi-prooflike.
Due to the low mintage, the dies didn’t wear enough to eliminate their prooflike appearance.
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Mintage | 2,300 |
Proof mintage | None |
Mintage ranking | 8th |
Finest known | MS65 |
Known obverse dies | 1 |
Known reverse dies | 1 |
Known die marriages | 1 |
Most common die marriage | OC-1/ R4+ |
Rarest business strike die marriage | OC-1/ R4+ |
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