1873-CC

Year four of Carson City eagle production delivered just 4,543 pieces, a delivery so small that virtually the entire run entered hard frontier circulation and most never came back. Doug Winter ranks the 1873-CC as the third-rarest CC eagle in overall terms and arguably the single rarest in high grade, a date where average survivors land in VG to VF and where condition becomes the gating factor for any serious Carson City eagle set. Coupled with the 1872-CC and 1879-CC, this issue defines the upper tier of difficulty within the with-motto Carson City run.

Roughly 50 to 80 examples survive across all grades, and the absolute condition census is brutal: PCGS and NGC combined have certified only a handful of properly graded AU coins, with the finest known a single PCGS AU55. Mint State is unknown. Specialists describe the surviving pool as decently struck but typically lusterless, abraded, and short on eye appeal, meaning a problem-free EF or better deserves a hard look. Authentication on a coin this valuable starts with the mintmark itself, since added-CC frauds built on Philadelphia 1873 hosts are the dominant deception risk; the CC punch should sit cleanly on undisturbed reverse field with no tooling halo or solder shadow under raking light. Verify weight at 16.718 grams and specific gravity near 17.2 to rule out gold-plated base-metal forgeries, and compare die markers to published Carson City reference photography before committing on a raw example. Recent Heritage activity included a PCGS XF45 at $19,550, with AU53 examples trading in the low-to-mid five figures.

Demand for this date pulls from two overlapping audiences: Carson City completists chasing a full CC eagle run, and date-set collectors who recognize 1873-CC as a true condition rarity rather than just a low-mintage curiosity. That dual pull keeps prices firm even when bullion softens, and any honest example with original surfaces tends to find a buyer quickly at recent levels. For collectors building toward a CC eagle set, this is a date to acquire when an acceptable coin appears rather than waiting for an upgrade that statistically may never surface. More context on the broader design and its mint-by-mint story lives in the Liberty Head Eagle series history.