1871-CC

The 1871-CC stands as the second-ever Carson City eagle, struck the year after the mint inaugurated denomination production with the famously elusive 1870-CC. With just 8,085 pieces released into the rough commerce of the silver-frontier West, the issue belongs to a small cluster of pre-1880 Carson City eagles whose mintages all fell below 10,000, a stretch of years that defines the toughest territory in the With Motto type. While not the headline rarity of the CC eagle run, the 1871-CC carries the weight of a sophomore date from a frontier mint still finding its footing, and Doug Winter has long noted that it ranks near the top of the entire Liberty Eagle series in condition rarity.

Survival across all grades sits in a band of roughly fifty to one hundred coins, with the bulk concentrated in VF and EF and a steep falloff above. Genuine AU survivors are scarce enough to require advance notice when one surfaces, and a true Mint State piece is essentially a once-in-a-generation event, Winter has called the finest known a possibly unique Uncirculated coin. Authentication is non-trivial: because Philadelphia and San Francisco eagles of the era are common in EF, added-CC mintmark fakes do circulate, and the genuine punch should sit cleanly between the wreath and the denomination with consistent serif weight on both letters. Verify weight at 16.718 grams and specific gravity near 17.2 to rule out gold-washed base-metal forgeries, and inspect the obverse rims and stars for the granular surfaces and shallow strike that Carson City production routinely produced through the early 1870s.

Among CC eagles the 1871-CC trades behind the 1870-CC and 1879-CC in absolute rarity but holds its own against the 1874-CC, 1877-CC, and 1882-CC in overall scarcity, and surpasses all three in high grade. Auction comparables in PCGS and NGC AU holders have realized in the mid five figures when the coin presents original surfaces, while problem-free EF examples remain attainable for collectors building a full year-set or a CC-mint subset. CAC approval meaningfully amplifies bid pressure, and the few finest-known coins occupy a market all their own. For broader context on the type's evolution and the Carson City chapter within it, see the Liberty Head Eagle series history.