CCCCOA MEMBER SUPPORT

DEAR VISITORS & DEAR MEMBERS,

AS VISITOR, YOU ARE WELCOME TO COMMENT ON ANY OF THE POSTS!

AS MEMBER, YOU ARE WELCOME TO SIGN-UP AS A BLOGSITE CONTRIBUTOR AND POST YOUR OWN ARTICLES OF INTEREST (INCLUDING UP TO 3 PICTURES) RELATING TO COLLECTING OF CARSON CITY COINS!

AS A MEMBER, TO GET THINGS ROLLING, YOU NEED TO SEND AN EMAIL TO: CCCCOA.SUPPORT@gmail.com REQUESTING AN INVITATION. (REMEMBER: INVITATIONS TO BECOME A CONTRIBUTOR ARE AVAILABLE TO MEMBERS ONLY.)

MEMBERS: JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE BLOGSITE AFTER YOU FOLLOW THE LINK TO YOUR INVITATION. SHOULD YOU ENCOUNTER ANY PROBLEMS, YOU ARE WELCOME TO REQUEST MY PHONE NUMBER AND I OR ONE OF OUR VOLUNTEERS WILL MORE THAN GLADLY HELP YOU!

THANKS & HAPPY BLOGGING,

CCCCOA.SUPPORT

BOOKS-BOOKS!

THERE ARE NUMEROUS BOOKS ON THE MARKET ABOUT OUR CARSON CITY COIN COLLECTING HOBBY.

RUSTY HAS TWO VOLUMES (AWARD WINING) MUST READS!
-THE MINT ON CARSON STREET
-JAMES CRAWFORD: MASTER OF THE MINT AT CARSON CITY.

I ALSO LIKE BOOKS WRITTEN ABOUT THE COMSTOCK LODE. EVERY TIME I PASS BY VIRGINIA CITY, I VISIT THE MARK TWAIN BOOKSTORE.

"Mark Twain may have defined a literary classic as 'a book which people praise and don't read,'" writes Cynthia Kennedy of Virginia City, "but this shop holds thousands of books people DO read. A creaking boardwalk leads to this mother lode of Nevada history, including photos and artifacts left from when the shop was the Mark Twain Museum of Memories." http://www.marktwainbooks.com/

GO CHECK IT OUT NEXT TIME YOU'RE THERE! YOU WONT REGRET IT.

SIERRABIKER

RECORD PRICE SET FOR 1876-CC TWENTY-CENT PIECE

A new record price was established for an 1876-CC twenty-cent piece at the Stack's 72nd Anniversary Sale held in New York on Wedsnesday, October 17, 2007. The price realized for this coin, graded MS-64 by PCGS, was $350,750. The bidding opened at $220,000 and immediately a flurry of hands went up. At the end, two bidders battled back and forth until one of them dropped out at the $300,000 level. The winning bid was $305,000 plus the fifteen percent buyer's fee of $45,750.

Prior to this record-setting event, the most recent sales of 1876-CC twenty-centers were of MS-66 specimens, with prices realized in the $250,000 range.

BOOK REVIEW: JAMES CRAWFORD "A SHORT FULL LIFE"

Hi to all C4OA members. You might be interested to know that in this month's issue (Oct. 2007) of the Numismatist (The A.N.A. Monthly publication), there is a very nice review of Rusty Goe's wonderful book "JAMES CRAWFORD Master of the Mint at Carson City - A short full life". Rusty's book is sure to capture many awards and is must reading for all C4OA members and Carson City coin fans. The Numismatist review is short but sweet and is among the first of many positive reviews that will undoubtedly be forthcoming.

1871-CC $5 Gold PCGS VF-25 Var. Winter 1-B

In the last issue of Curry's Chronicle there was an article by John W. McCloskey (RM-0188) entitled "A RARITY STUDY FOR 1871-CC HALF EAGLES". In the article he meticulously describes the known die varieties of this date. Please refer to his article for the descriptions. There are about 140 to 175 known survivors* in all grades and aproximately 70% of these are Var. 1-A.** Much rarer are the varieties 1-B & 1-C. They each represent about 15% of the surving total. Thanks to John's enlightening article, I have made the wonderful discovery that I have one of the rare 1871-CC $5 die varieties in my collection; in this case a Var. 1-B (again, only 15% of this date's total survivors are of this variety). My coin is a PCGS VF-25 in an old green holder, and I thought I would give everyone a view. My "hats off" to John McCloskey for the great article. It would be nice to see future "Curry's" articles on the die varieties of these low survivor population coins.

*Survivor figures from "Mint on Carson Street" - Rusty Goe **Varieties 1-A & 1-B attributed to Doug Winter & Lawrence Cutler

Problem Coins

When does a really rare coin

that is also a problem coin

cease to be desirable?

With all the hoopla surrounding the registry set craze and certified coins in general, the hobby normally discounts coins with problems. Currently there are no set standards to the price deductions of coins based on the degree of the problem. Coins that don't make it into one holder as a problem coin, may make it into another holder as a good coin. The problem may be "barely detectable" as with a light old cleaning, to quite bad as would be the case for a coin that was holed or damaged.

If the coin is an 1884 CC Morgan dollar with a problem, it's easy to pass, because a nicer coin can be found immediately at nearly every dealer's shop, show or auction house. But, if the coin happens to be a desirable rarity such as an 1870 cc quarter or 1873 cc dollar that's cleaned, how would you value it? Or, would you just pass knowing that these coins rarely surface. Please comment.

1873-CC With Arrows dime with porous surfaces on obverse.

The 1875-S/CC Trade Dollar

I have a couple questions about the 1875-S/CC trade dollar. Is this an expensive coin to buy? How many of these coins exist? I think that this would be a great coin to have.