1891-CC $10 Liberty Head Eagle PCGS MS62

With a mintage of 103,732, the 1891-CC Liberty head eagle had the largest mintage of that series at the Carson City Mint. However, many circulated in the Old West, for Westerners simply refused to use paper money. Many others spent time in bags traveling to and from Europe, which resulted in bagmarks and grades generally in the MS61-MS62 range. This attractive offering from AUCM appears to among those pieces that traveled to and from Europe. PCGS has graded 580 specimens as MS62 with 144 finer. Collectors Universe gives this issue a price of $5,500.00 in MS62.

The Carson City Mint, where this great collectible was struck in 1891. Photo: Wikipedia.

Coin dealer and numismatic author Ron Gillio writes, "Here's a[n] 1891-CC $10 story. My first trip to Europe to buy coins was in about 1970. I went to Zurich ... [and] went to the bullion department of Credit Suisse .... They ... brought out two bags of mixed date coins. We didn't have a lot of time, so we just picked out the Carson City mint coins. We bought about 75 to 100 uncirculated 1891-CC $10 Liberties. Those truly were the 'good old days' and unfortunately all of the coins are now long gone."