The Carson City Mint and CC Silver: Comstock Metal, Struck in Nevada

Turn a Morgan silver dollar over and look beneath the wreath. Two small letters, CC, mark a coin struck in Carson City, Nevada, at the branch of the U.S. Mint that opened in 1870 and turned Comstock Lode metal into gold and silver coin until 1893. The building still stands on North Carson Street, a sandstone Renaissance Revival block now home to the Nevada State Museum, and its original press, Coin Press No. 1, still works.

CC is among the most coveted mint marks in American coinage, and the reasons are plain: a small, remote mint, modest mintages, and a Treasury that melted much of what it struck. It is also among the most counterfeited, so alongside the history comes an honest account of how collectors protect themselves. For the silver behind it all, begin with Virginia City and the Comstock Lode.

Why Nevada Got a Mint

Before 1870, the Comstock's bullion made the long haul to the San Francisco Mint, roughly 150 miles away, costly and exposed to robbery. Congress answered by authorizing a branch mint at Carson City on March 3, 1863, a year before Nevada became a state. Construction took far longer than the paperwork: ground was broken in July 1866, the cornerstone laid that September, and the building finished in December 1869.

Alfred B. Mullett, the Treasury's Supervising Architect, drew the plans: a sandstone building in the Renaissance Revival manner, with paired round-headed windows and a central portico. Abraham Curry, the man who founded Carson City, oversaw construction and became the mint's first superintendent. The first coins, struck in February 1870, were Seated Liberty silver dollars, each stamped CC.

Two Spells of Coinage

The Carson City Mint struck coin from 1870 to 1885 and again from 1889 to 1893, twenty-one calendar years of work in all. In September 1885 the Cleveland administration's anti-silver policy shut it down; it stood idle for four years and reopened in the autumn of 1889. By 1893, with the Comstock in decline, coining ended for good.

The output ran from dimes and twenty-cent pieces through quarters, half dollars, Trade dollars, and Morgan dollars, to gold five, ten, and twenty-dollar pieces. The total came to more than fifty million dollars, struck by a payroll that peaked at about seventy-five people. Morgan dollars alone ran from 1878 to 1885 and 1889 to 1893, thirteen dates, every one marked CC.

The Coins Collectors Chase

The scarcest CC coins are the earliest. The 1870-CC double eagle was struck in a run of just 3,789 pieces. The 1873-CC dime without arrows, 12,400 struck to the older weight standard, survives in a single known example. Of 10,000 twenty-cent pieces made in 1876, nearly all were melted the next year, and fewer than twenty are known.

The silver dollars tell a different story. In the early 1960s, Treasury workers found a vault cache of roughly three million uncirculated silver dollars, about 2.8 million of them from Carson City. The General Services Administration sold them between 1972 and 1980 in seven mail-bid sales, each coin sealed in a plastic holder and boxed with a certificate. The hoard made some dates easy to find. The 1884-CC, with over 962,000 recovered, is now the most common CC Morgan. It left others scarce: the 1889-CC, with a mintage of 350,000 and much of it melted, was nearly absent from the hoard and has been a keystone of the series ever since.

Authenticating a CC Coin

A coin worth many times its Philadelphia twin because of two letters invites forgery. The commonest trick is an added mint mark: a tiny CC attached to a coin struck without one, such as an 1889 Philadelphia Morgan, which carries no mint mark at all. The tells are discoloration or glue residue around the letters, a weak strike on the obverse, and flat luster. Cast and struck counterfeits exist too, and many fail basic weight and diameter checks.

Three habits protect a buyer. Have any valuable CC coin authenticated and graded by an independent grading service before money changes hands. Treat original government packaging as part of the coin's value, because a coin removed from its holder cannot regain it. And remember that the medallions struck today at the museum on Coin Press No. 1 carry a CC mark too; they are souvenirs, not mint coinage.

From Mint to Museum

Coining stopped in 1893, but the building kept working. It served as a bullion depository, was redesignated a U.S. Assay Office in 1899, and operated as one until 1933. The federal government sold it to the State of Nevada in 1939 for $10,000, and it opened as the Nevada State Museum in 1941. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Inside, Coin Press No. 1, the original press that struck the first Carson City coins in 1870, still strikes CC-marked medallions, and the Norman H. Biltz coin collection anchors the first-floor mint exhibit.

At a Glance: The Carson City Mint

• Location: 600 N. Carson Street, Carson City, Nevada, now the Nevada State Museum.
• Authorized March 3, 1863; cornerstone September 1866; building finished December 1869; first coins struck February 1870.
• Architect: Alfred B. Mullett. First superintendent: Abraham Curry, founder of Carson City.
• Mint mark: CC. Coinage years: 1870 to 1885 and 1889 to 1893, more than $50 million in gold and silver.
• Morgan dollars: thirteen CC dates, 1878 to 1885 and 1889 to 1893.
• Afterward: assay office from 1899 to 1933, sold to Nevada in 1939, museum since 1941, National Register listing 1975.
• Still working: Coin Press No. 1 strikes CC-marked medallions at the museum.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does CC mean on a coin?

CC is the mint mark of the Carson City Mint in Nevada. It appears on the reverse of coins struck there, beneath the wreath on a Morgan dollar.

When did the Carson City Mint operate?

From 1870 to 1885 and again from 1889 to 1893. It was authorized in 1863 and first struck coins in February 1870.

Where can I see Coin Press No. 1?

At the Nevada State Museum, 600 N. Carson Street in Carson City, in the building that was the mint. The press still strikes commemorative medallions marked CC.

How can I tell if a CC coin is real?

Examine the mint mark for glue residue, discoloration, or a weak surrounding strike, and check weight and diameter against the standard. For any coin valued largely for its CC, have an independent grading service authenticate it before you buy.

Conclusion

The Carson City Mint is a very Nevada story: a federal building raised in a mining town to turn local metal into money, shut down by politics, reopened, and closed again when the Comstock faded. What it left behind is small enough to hold: two letters on a coin, struck from Nevada's own silver and gold.

We keep returning to the silver country at The Eclection, and to the objects that grew out of it. To bring a piece of that era home, explore our curated collection at The Eclection.

Resources & Further Reading

For deeper study, these are reliable, non-commercial starting points:

• United States Mint, History of the Carson City Mint — dates, coinage, and the mint's closing.
• Nevada State Museum, Carson City — visiting the historic mint building and Coin Press No. 1.
• NGC, Counterfeit Detection: 1889-CC Morgan Dollar — how added CC mint marks are spotted.
• PCGS, Numismatic Destinations — a collector's tour of the former mint.
• Online Nevada Encyclopedia — articles on Nevada history, people, and places.

Hero photograph: The Carson City Mint, c. 1879, Historic American Buildings Survey photocopy, Library of Congress. Public domain.