With more than $60 million realized, the sheer volume of Heritage and Stack’s Bowers Galleries official 2015 American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money auctions allowed collectors to choose from a wide range of material. Coins from the Carson City Mint were well represented, so much so that one can explore fine nuances within a market, such as Carson City Mint coins in the Very Good 10 grade. Better than the standard Very Good 8, but not quite Fine, these coins are often priced in the marketplace with a slight-to-modest premium over a typical Very Good 8 coin.

Here is one of three we're profiling in this week's Market Analysis:

The Coin

1889-CC Morgan dollar

The Price

$517

The Story

The 1889-CC Morgan dollar is a key to the series with a relatively low mintage of just 350,000 pieces (many of which found their final home in the melting pot).

The Carson City Mint had stopped striking silver dollars in 1885, and dollar production in 1889 did not resume until October. As Rusty Goe writes in his book The Mint on Carson Street, “Carson City Mint employees were eager to get back to work in July of 1889. Four years of dormancy had left the facility in a state of disrepair, but clean-up crews removed the cobwebs, aired out the rooms, and dusted off the machinery in preparation for a resurrection of coinage operations.”

This Very Good 10 example, graded by Numismatic Guaranty Corp., sold for $517 at Heritage’s online ANA auction held immediately after the close of the convention. The price was a bit more than the $500 that a comparable Very Good 8 representative may bring, but much less than the $750 that a nice Fine 12 example would merit. 

Keep reading this Market Analysis:

At Very Good 10, very rare 1870-CC Coronet gold $10 eagle brings $28,200

1884-CC Coronet gold realizes $3,525 at 2015 ANA show despite Very Good 10 grade