1873-CC Arrows

The 1873-CC Arrows half dollar carries the Coinage Act of 1873 stamped right into its face. Congress had nudged the half dollar from 12.44 grams to 12.50 grams that spring to align the silver coinage with the metric system, and the Mint marked the change by adding two small arrows flanking the date. Carson City had already struck a modest run at the old weight before word and new dies caught up with the branch, those pieces becoming the No Arrows subtype that is one of the great rarities of the Seated series and a separate listing on this site. Once the new-weight dies arrived, the CC coiner resumed striking under the heavier standard and produced the Arrows version covered here. Total 1873-CC half dollar mintage across both subtypes is reported at 214,560 pieces, with the Arrows share making up the majority of the run.

Authentication on a Carson City Key Date turns on three checks the buyer should run before price enters the conversation. First, confirm the arrowheads. Genuine Arrows pieces show two sharp, fully formed arrow shapes flanking the 1873 date, both struck up cleanly against the field; a weighed example must fall at or very near the new 12.50 gram standard, which is the single most efficient way to separate this issue from the No Arrows subtype that shares the date and mintmark. Second, examine the CC mintmark itself, sitting below the eagle on the reverse. Both C's should match in height, serif weight, and spacing, with no tooled or recut base; added-mintmark fakes built from common Philadelphia 1873 Arrows halves are the standard alteration risk on any CC half, and this date is a prime target. Third, look for the heavy, even circulation wear that genuine survivors almost always carry, the result of the coin spending its working life in Comstock and western mining-camp commerce rather than being saved.

The 1873-CC Arrows ranks as a Key Date of the broader Seated Liberty half dollar series, sitting a clear step below the 1873-CC No Arrows companion on the rarity ladder yet still well ahead of the Philadelphia and San Francisco 1873 Arrows issues that were struck by the hundreds of thousands. Certified populations thin sharply above Very Fine, Extremely Fine survivors are scarce, and About Uncirculated and Mint State pieces appear at auction rarely enough to draw real attention when they do. Most surviving examples grade Good through Fine and show the deep, honest rub a working Carson City coin earned in the silver-rush economy of the 1870s. For the full design arc, the 1853 and 1873 weight changes that produced the Arrows subtypes, and Carson City's place in late Seated half production, see the Seated Liberty Half Dollar series history.