1889-CC Morgan Dollar

A mint built on the Comstock

The Carson City Mint was created in 1863, in the middle of the Civil War, when the federal government had lost minting capacity in the South and wanted a facility close to the silver of Nevada's Comstock Lode. It did not strike its first coins until February 4, 1870, when Seated Liberty dollars came off the press. The building was the first designed by Alfred B. Mullett as Supervising Architect of the Treasury, and its construction was overseen by Abraham Curry, remembered as the "Father of Carson City," who served as the mint's first superintendent.

The silver dollar that would make the mint famous came out of a political fight. The Coinage Act of 1873 had ended the free coinage of silver, and when silver prices fell as Western mines poured out metal, miners, farmers and others demanded it back. The result was the Bland-Allison Act, passed over President Rutherford B. Hayes's veto on February 28, 1878, which required the Treasury to buy between two and four million dollars' worth of silver every month and coin it into dollars.

Mint Director Henry Linderman wanted the Western mints to help meet that quota. Dies for the new dollar reached both San Francisco and Carson City on April 16, 1878. Carson City struck Morgan dollars from 1878 to 1885 and again from 1889 to 1893, and the CC mintmark, placed on the reverse above the space between the D and O of DOLLAR, became one of the most romantic two-letter marks in American coinage. Only about 2 percent of all Morgan dollars were struck there.

An English engraver and a Philadelphia profile

In 1876 Linderman asked the Deputy Master of the Royal Mint in London to find him "a first-class die-sinker" for the Philadelphia Mint. The recommendation was George T. Morgan, then 30, "who has made himself a considerable name, but for whom there is not much opening at present in this country." Morgan arrived in Philadelphia on October 9, 1876, on a six-month trial under Chief Engraver William Barber.

Morgan wanted Liberty to look like an American woman rather than a Greek goddess. He enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and his friend the painter Thomas Eakins suggested a model: Anna Willess Williams of Philadelphia. She sat for him five times, and he declared her profile the most perfect he had seen. For the reverse he studied bald eagles from nature.

The first acceptable Morgan dollar was struck at the Philadelphia Mint at 3:17 p.m. on March 11, 1878, and was given to President Hayes. Within weeks the design was revised to lower its relief, which had been shortening die life, and to cut the eagle's tail feathers from eight to seven, because earlier American coins had always shown an odd number.

Shut down, started up, and rushed

Carson City's presses went quiet in 1885. Mint operations were suspended on September 11 of that year amid the anti-silver stance of President Grover Cleveland's first administration. The mint stayed closed for most of his term.

Republican Benjamin Harrison defeated Cleveland in the 1888 election and was sworn in on March 4, 1889, and the Nevada mint prepared to reopen. Four idle years had left both the workforce and the machinery unready, and sources differ slightly on the restart: one history dates the resumption of coinage to September 1889, while the grading service's record says no coins were delivered to the Treasury until October. Either way, the whole year's Morgan dollar output was squeezed into the last quarter: 100,000 coins in October, 100,000 in November and 150,000 in December, for 350,000 in all.

The haste shows on the coins. The grading service's notes say 1889-CC dollars generally have a mediocre strike but excellent luster, and nearly a quarter of survivors are semi-prooflike or prooflike, with mirror-like fields. The mint itself did not last long after its revival; its final coins were struck before June 1893, after which the building became a bullion depository and later an assay office.

Melted, spent, and missing from the hoards

During World War I, German propaganda in India spread the rumor that British paper money there could not be redeemed for silver, setting off a run on Britain's silver. In April 1918 Congress passed the Pittman Act, sponsored by Nevada senator Key Pittman, which allowed the United States to melt up to 350,000,000 silver dollars. In the end 270,232,722 were melted, 259,121,554 of them sold to the United Kingdom. The Treasury never recorded which dates went into the furnace, but the grading service estimates that perhaps 93 to 95 percent of all 1889-CC dollars were among them.

Many of the survivors were paid out into circulation during the 1930s, which is why most 1889-CC dollars today are well worn; about 7,500 are graded Very Fine or lower. That history set the coin apart from its Carson City siblings. When the Treasury opened its vaults in the early 1960s, it found slightly more than 2.8 million Carson City dollars in sealed bags. Congress handed them to the General Services Administration, which sold them in seven mail-bid sales between 1972 and 1980. Dates once thought rare, such as the 1885-CC, became relatively common. The 1889-CC did not: those sales contained a single example.

Small groups still surface. A Nevada family whose ancestor had apparently drawn two rolls of the coins from a local bank kept 35 uncirculated 1889-CC dollars for generations. Certified as a group, they graded from MS61 to MS64 Deep Mirror Prooflike, spread across four die varieties (VAM 2, 3, 5 and 5A), and added about 5 percent to the grading service's Mint State population of the date. The group is known as the Desert Find.

The finest known and how the grades climb

The 1889-CC does not have the lowest mintage among Carson City Morgans; the 1885-CC, at 228,000, does. What makes the 1889-CC the rarest of the CC dollars is survival. The grading service estimates more than 180,000 survivors of the 1881-CC against fewer than 30,000 of the 1889-CC, and only a handful in MS65 or better. Its expert survival table puts the number at MS65 or finer at seven.

The finest known is the Mills-Clapp-Eliasberg coin, now graded PCGS MS68 and toned. It sold for $6.75 in the John G. Mills Collection sale on April 29, 1904, then passed to John Martin Clapp, his son John H. Clapp, and Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. It brought $462,000 in the Eliasberg sale on April 6, 1997, when it was described as MS66 prooflike; $531,875 in the Jack Lee Collection sale on January 9, 2009; and $881,250 in 2013. That last figure was then a public record for any Morgan dollar, later broken by the 1893-S. The second-finest, a PCGS MS65+ with russet toning along the upper edge from the Del Mar Collection, realized $660,000 in August 2023.

Below the top, prices still climb steeply. The grading service's published notes put any genuine example at a hard-to-find under $1,500, About Uncirculated coins at $15,000 to $20,000, and MS63 near $50,000. Actual sales of the grade this entry tracks: an NGC MS63 with a CAC sticker brought $45,600 at auction in January 2024, and a PCGS MS63 with a CAC sticker from the KBella Collection, assembled in the 1960s, brought $48,800 at auction in August 2026. The latter's cataloger reported a CAC-stickered population of 18 at MS63 with nine finer.

To identify one: the date reads 1889, and the small CC mintmark sits on the reverse, above the space between the D and O of DOLLAR. Because the date is valuable and the 1889 Philadelphia issue is the highest-mintage Morgan of all, at about 21.7 million, buyers of the Carson City coin rely on certification.

The King of Carson City

Collectors call the 1889-CC "the King of Carson City Morgan Dollars" and pair it with the 1893-S as the two great business-strike keys of the series. A veteran rare-coin dealer who has handled the finest known has put it this way: "The 1889-CC is considered to be one of the top two most desirable and difficult coins of the Morgan Dollar series, sharing this crown with the 1893-S."

The mint that struck it is now the Nevada State Museum, Carson City. Coin Press No. 1, the mint's original press, is still in the building and still strikes commemorative medallions with the CC mark. When the U.S. Mint revived the Morgan dollar for its centennial in 2021, two-thirds of the Philadelphia coins carried privy marks for the defunct Carson City and New Orleans mints, and the first 2021 Morgan release sold out on the Mint's website in 45 minutes. A 2019 bill to strike 2021 dollars inside the old Carson City building did not pass, so none has been coined there since 1893.

The numbers

Mintage

350,000 (October 100,000; November 100,000; December 150,000)

Known survivors

Expert estimate: 25,250 in all grades, 4,250 MS60 or better, 7 MS65 or better. A separate article from the same grading service says fewer than 30,000 and about 5,000 Mint State.

Weight

26.73 grams (412.5 grains); 0.7734 troy oz of pure silver

Diameter

38.1 mm (1.5 inches)

Composition

90% silver, 10% copper; reeded edge

Designer

George T. Morgan; Liberty modeled by Anna Willess Williams

Mint

Carson City, Nevada; CC mintmark on the reverse

Finest known

PCGS MS68, Mills-Clapp-Eliasberg-Lee

Timeline

1. 1863

   The Carson City branch mint is created to serve the silver of the Comstock Lode.

2. Feb 4, 1870

   The Carson City Mint strikes its first coins, Seated Liberty dollars.

3. Oct 9, 1876

   English engraver George T. Morgan arrives at the Philadelphia Mint.

4. Feb 28, 1878

   Congress overrides President Hayes's veto of the Bland-Allison Act, requiring monthly silver purchases for coining dollars.

5. Mar 11, 1878

   The first Morgan dollar is struck at Philadelphia at 3:17 p.m. and given to President Hayes.

6. Apr 16, 1878

   Morgan dollar dies arrive at the Carson City and San Francisco mints.

7. Sep 11, 1885

   Carson City Mint operations are suspended under the Cleveland administration.

8. Mar 4, 1889

   Benjamin Harrison takes office; the Nevada mint prepares to reopen.

9. Oct 1889

   The first 100,000 1889-CC dollars are delivered; 100,000 more follow in November and 150,000 in December.

10. 1893

    The Carson City Mint strikes its last coins, before June.

11. Apr 29, 1904

    The future finest-known 1889-CC sells for $6.75 in the John G. Mills Collection sale.

12. Apr 1918

    The Pittman Act allows the melting of up to 350 million silver dollars; most 1889-CCs are believed melted.

13. 1972

    The first of seven government mail-bid sales of Carson City dollars begins; the sales, through 1980, include only one 1889-CC.

14. Apr 6, 1997

    The Eliasberg coin brings $462,000 at auction.

15. Jan 9, 2009

    The same coin, now PCGS MS68, brings $531,875 in the Jack Lee Collection sale.

16. 2013

    The MS68 brings $881,250 at auction, then a record for any Morgan dollar.

17. Aug 2023

    A PCGS MS65+ CAC example from the Del Mar Collection realizes $660,000.

18. Jan 2024

    An NGC MS63 CAC example, the grade this entry tracks, sells for $45,600 at auction.

19. Aug 2026

    A PCGS MS63 CAC example from the KBella Collection sells for $48,800 at auction.

The world in 1889

• Jan 8, 1889

  Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his electric tabulating machine, later used for the 1890 census.

• Mar 4, 1889

  Benjamin Harrison is sworn in as the 23rd president.

• Apr 22, 1889

  The Oklahoma Land Rush begins at noon; Oklahoma City and Guthrie appear within hours.

• May 31, 1889

  The South Fork Dam fails above Johnstown, Pennsylvania, killing more than 2,200 people.

• Jun 6, 1889

  The Great Seattle Fire burns through the downtown area.

• Nov 1889

  North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washington become states within ten days.

• Nov 14, 1889

  Nellie Bly sets out to travel around the world in under 80 days; she does it in 72.

• Nov 23, 1889

  The first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1889-CC Morgan Dollar is number 81 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (36 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The finest 1889-CC sold for $6.75 in 1904. The same coin brought $881,250 in 2013.
• Of the roughly 2.8 million Carson City dollars the government sold in the 1970s, only one is known to have been an 1889-CC.
• The entire 1889-CC mintage was struck in the last three months of the year, after a four-year shutdown.
• Nearly a quarter of surviving 1889-CC dollars have semi-prooflike or prooflike mirrored fields.
• A Nevada family kept two bank rolls of 1889-CC dollars for generations; the 35 coins raised the certified Mint State population by about 5 percent.
• The old Carson City Mint's Coin Press No. 1 still works, striking CC-marked medallions at the Nevada State Museum.
• Morgan's model, Anna Willess Williams, was suggested to him by the painter Thomas Eakins.