Lot 2131
1871-CC. NGC graded AU-58. Well struck and untoned. Only 20,770 struck. Very rare date in Mint State and priced to the moon, well away from the reach of most collectors (see populations below). For AU58, what you get is a satin-fresh beauty whose agreeable mint frost within expands around and on top of the devices covering a good 70% or more of the surface. Level, rolling luster, it is, frosted and almost granular plus free from heavy abrasions that so commonly plague early CC-mint half eagles. There are choice quality surfaces and then there are choice quality surfaces, with this handsome offering one of the latter.
1871-CC checks in as a very significant rarity among the $5 issues produced at the Carson City Mint. Relatively few were made (in this instance 20,770), and nearly all seem to have been put into circulation. There was no interest on the part of numismatists at the time. The present piece is quite exceptional. The Carson City Mint specialist will find this to be an incredible opportunity, one that may not be repeated for many years. Pop 8; 1 in 61, 1 in 63 (PCGS # 8323) .
1871 was a key year in what would turn out to be an unfolding American tragedy. A Vermont tanner invented a process of tanning buffalo hide in 1871, which made it commercially usable. In 1872, the slaughter began. With government approval, marksmen and skinners moved in, and by 1878 the great southern buffalo herd, estimated at 10 million head, had been wiped out. Then the hunters moved north and slaughtered another 5 million. The hunters often moved onto Indian land. If the Indians objected and drove the hunters out, the Army under ex Civil War General William T. Sherman would come in and destroy all of the Indians' possessions, forcing them to surrender or face the elements, without homes, horses, food, or tools. Between 1860 and 1889, the number of Great Plains buffalo was reduced from 50 million to 551. [Today, through conservation and breeding herds, there are approximately 500,000 bison in captive commercial populations (mostly plains bison) on about 4,000 privately owned ranches.].
Estimated Value $20,000 - 22,000.
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| Realized $22,425 |
