Only 10,817 examples were produced and the 1874-CC is the rarest collectible dime from this mint. Of the fewer than 100 that are known, many are ungradeable due to poor quality planchets. This is a “gem” coin for the grade with a much better quality planchet than usual. From the standpoint of sharpness, it is virtually a Fine-12 with all the letters in LIBERTY clear to the naked eye but there is one very light, old scratch on the obverse from the top of the E in UNITED into the field that narrowly removes it from a higher grade. The color is a pleasing battleship grey and there is a full “circulated cameo” appearance on both sides. Most of the 1874-CC dimes that I have seen in the VG-F grade range are drastically net graded and allowed alot of room to slide because of the rarity of this date. Not so with this coin which would be a VG10 even if it were a common coin; let alone the undisputed rarest issue in the whole series. The only VG10 to sell at auction was the nearly-identical Heritage 7/12: 3414 coin that just brought $13,800. That piece was a hair more worn than this and it wasn’t approved by CAC. As nice an example of this rarity as you are likely to find for less than $20,000.

This is the only 1874-CC dime in this grade to be approved by CAC and only four examples of this date has been approved in total.