After more than a decade of viewing coins, the numbers which CAC has approved are now a significant sample size. In the case of Liberty Head quarter eagles, I believe that any issue with fewer than eight pieces approved show true appearance rarity.
At Douglas Winter Numismatics, we tend to keep things pretty under the radar. This means that many fantastic US gold coins never make it onto our website and often don’t even receive any publicity.
Carson City double eagles can be neatly divided into three tiers of rarity. The first tier—or what I like to call the Big Five—consists of the 1871-CC, 1878-CC, 1879-CC, 1885-CC, and the 1891-CC. If we assume that most collectors will never buy an 1870-CC due to its rarity and cost, these five issues are the keys to the set.
