The 1871-CC is the most available of the early date Carson City half eagles but it is scarce in properly graded EF40 and rare in AU50 and above. When available, EF coins inevitably are bright from a recent cleaning and often have poor overall eye appeal.

This coin is asolid EF45 which has been net graded down to an EF40 by PCGS due to a shallow mint-made planchet flaw that travels across the portrait on the obverse. This can be overlooked when one considers the blatant originality of this coin. The surfaces show very attractive rich natural green-gold hues with some deeper hues seen in the obverse fields.

Remarkably, there have been no auction records for this date in PCGS EF40 since Superior 9/07:949 when a vastly undergraded example in an old green holder brought a strong $16,100. A non-CAC example did sell for $4,988 on EBay in August 2010.

If you collect Carson City half eagles by date and are quality conscious, you know how hard it is to locate a nice 1871-CC for less than $10,000.

This is the only 1871-CC half eagle in this grade to be approved by CAC; five finer coins have been approved as well.