1881-CC $5 MS(PCGS#8356)

The June 2013 Baltimore Auction

拍卖行

Stack's Bowers

批号

2491

等级

MS62

价格

201,884

详细说明

1881-CC Liberty Half Eagle. MS-62 (NGC). A visually captivating, sharply struck, prooflike example from the Carson City Mint. The glassy fields and lightly frosted devices exhibit light green-gold and pale rose toning. A nicely preserved specimen with a few faint, scattered ticks in the fields, and a faint scuff mark located directly above the date is noted for future identification. The eye appeal is quite high for this elusive issue, and this date and mint is seldom offered in <em>any </em>mint state grade. The recorded mintage of 13,886 pieces suffered the usual high attrition rate common to these Carson City half eagles, with perhaps 200 or known today. Of these&nbsp;a mere handful remain in various Mint State grades and their availability is subject to the whims of collectors who decide to sell. Certainly well within the top ten known of this date and mint, and worthy of any advanced collection.<br /> <br /> As noted by expert Rusty Goe in our offering of the famed Battle Born Collection nearly a year ago, the Carson City Mint welcomed a new chief assayer in January of 1881 named Josiah M. Hetrich. Josiah Hetrich was the brother of former Carson City Mint Superintendent Frank D. Hetrich, and Josiah replaced William P. Prescott who passed away in December of 1880. Josiah Hetrich had formerly served as an assistant in the melting and refining department. Prescott, had he not met with an untimely death, would have faced an investigation in February 1881, after the annual assay commissioners had determined that samples from a July 1880 run of silver dollars had not been assayed properly. Since they could not question Prescott, the commissioners simply ordered that the entire July mintage of silver dollars be melted down.<br /> <br /> Goe continues with the annual report at the Carson City Mint. As stated by Mint Director Horatio Burchard in his 1881 annual report, the focus of coinage of gold into denominations less than twenty dollars in face value had continued.