1879-CC Morgan Dollar
The silver dollar design of 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921 was the work of United States Mint Engraver George T. Morgan.
It was the passage of the Bland-Allison Act on February 28, 1878 that paved the way for the Morgan dollar. Pressure from western mining interests played a pivotal role in the law’s adoption.(1)
At its center, Bland-Allison required the U.S. Treasury to purchase $2 to $4 million worth of silver monthly, enough to produce one dollar coins in quantities far exceeding what was needed for commerce. As a result, almost all of them accumulated in Treasury vaults in Mint sealed bags of 1,000 coins.(2)
There are two major varieties for the 1879-CC: (1) the normal mintmark, and the (2) Large CC over Small CC overmintmark, sometimes call the Capped Die, which is much less common. The effects of a rusting die are often visible on the Capped Die variety.(3)
The 1879-CC Morgan dollar rates near the top of the heap in scarcity, value, and historical price trending. It is one of the three important keys to the Carson City Morgan dollar set. The other two are the 1889-CC and the 1893-CC.
Please Note: For the Morgan dollar price trend survey, only grades F-12, VF-20, EF-40, AU-50, and MS-60 were analyzed. Higher grades, Prooflike (PL), and Deep Mirror Prooflike (DMPL) were omitted because in these conditions, even rather ordinary Morgan dates can attain astronomical values, that could easily skew results. The goal of the survey is to identify coins demonstrating superior price trend histories, regardless of grade.
| Estimated survivors in all grades: 21,000 ?
The survivor estimate from PCGS represents an average of one or more experts' opinions as to how many examples survive of a particular coin in all grades. Survival estimates include coins that are raw, certified by PCGS, and certified by other grading services. Learn more at PCGS. |
| PCGS Rarity Scale: 2.7 ?
The 'PCGS CoinFacts Rarity Scale' assesses the relative rarity of all U.S. coins, based on estimated surviving examples. The scale runs from 1.0 to 10.0. The higher the number, the rarer the coin.
Learn more at PCGS. |
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| Trendline Avg = 16.31 | GOOD |
Historic Value Trend Charts:
| Last updated 9-4-23 |  |
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| Compare to Common Date Coin of Same Type | ||
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Sources
1. Doty, Richard. America's Money, America's Story. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1998.
2. Bowers, Q. David. The History of United States Coinage. Los Angeles, CA: Bowers and Ruddy Galleries, Inc., 1979.
3. Stack's Bowers Galleries. 1879-CC Morgan Silver Dollar. VAM-3. Top 100 Variety. Capped Die. Aug 2012 Auction.
**Many very fine coin dealers sell on eBay. At any point in time, there may be over one million search results for United States coins. This includes quite a few of the recommendations on our Key Date Coin List.
If you’re thinking about purchasing a rare coin, eBay is certainly worth a look. For your convenience, the links from this site to eBay are coded to bring up only coins certified by PCGS and NGC.
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Coin images by Stack's Bowers Galleries.
