1890-CC Eagle - 1890-CC $10 NGC MS63 CAC. This Mint state extremely rare Carson City Eagle is tied for the finest known at NGC. Both sides show significant, frosty cartwheel luster over the richly colored gold surfaces, with a moderately reflective obverse and a more reflective reverse. The coin is well struck with full details seen on the high points of Libertys hair, the centers of the stars, the eagles neck, and the area to the lower left of the shield. The surfaces are original, clean, and, for the grade, free of individual marks that require description. Because of light surface abrasion, NGC graded the coin MS63, which was confirmed by CAC indicating that the coin is of premium quality and fully disserves the grade that it was assigned.

The Coronet or Liberty Head eagle shows Liberty facing left in profile wearing a LIBERTY inscribed coronet with her hair tied in the back in beads. Two long curls hang down her neck, one in the back and the other on the side. She is surrounded with thirteen six-pointed stars. The date is below the truncation, which shows no drapery. The motif is taken from a Benjamin West painting of Venus. It was also used with modifications for the Large Cents of 1839. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle with outstretched wing looking to the left. On its chest is the Union shield. In its talons it holds the olive branch and arrows. The error in the previous issue, Scots eagle held the arrows and the olive branches in the wrong talons, is corrected. Except for the tips of the eagles wings UNITED STATES OF AMERICA surrounds the reverse, separated from the denomination TEN D. by dots. Dentils are near the edge on both sides of the Gobrechts Coronet eagle Liberty, Head No Motto coin, and the edge is reeded. Type 2 was created when the motto IN GOD WE TRUST was added to a banner designed by James B. Longacre above the eagle in 1866. The change was made in response to pressure organized by the Reverend M.R. Watkinson. The motto remained until 1907, when President Theodore Roosevelt told Augustus Saint-Gaudens to omit it on the newly designed eagle.

Authorized in 1863, the Carson City Mint began coinage in 1870 and continued until 1893. It was then operated as a government assay office until 1933 when it was closed as a cost cutting measure. During its operation it made fifty-seven different types of gold coins. It also converted gold bullion and oar into gold bars, which were shipped to San Francisco for coinage there. Coins issued from the Carson City used the CC mint mark. Originally established to convert silver from the Comstock Lode to coinage, the Carson City Mint also processed gold in to gold coins.

When first discovered, gold and silver found in Nevada had to be shipped over the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the branch mint in San Francisco. This trip was dangerous and expensive. The Nevada mine owners asked Congress to establish a branch of the mint in their state, and legislation was enacted in 1863. Carson City was chosen as the location for the mint facility because it was near some of the major mining sites.

In 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland became president. He fired all the Republican appointees including the top officials at the Carson City Mint and shut it down. A year later it reopened as an assay office. When Republican Benjamin Harrison became president, he fired Clevelands appointees and replaced them with Republicans. In 1889 coining operations resumed.
In 1890 the Sherman Silver Purchase Act modified the Bland-Allison Act. Under it the government was required to purchase 4.5 million ounces of silver per month which was to be paid with bonds that could be redeemed for gold or silver. Much to the surprise of the officials, most bond holders chose gold, which depleted the governments gold reserve. This instability caused the panic of 1893, which led to the repeal of the Sherman Act and slowed the production of silver dollars. At the same time the Nevada mines were no longer as plentiful as they had been before. Combined with a low silver price, a scandal (a worker tried to smuggle gold out of the mint in his lunch box), and a struggling economy, the Mint Director, Robert Preston, ordered the Carson City Mint as a coining facility closed in 1893.

The 1890-CC eagle had an original mintage of 17,500. Circulated examples and even high-end AU pieces can be found today. However, in grades above MS62, the coin is extremely rare. In its population report, NGC shows this coin in MS63 tied for the finest with 7 others. At PCGS there are 4 in MS63 with 1 better. As of March 2012 at CAC, there are 2 in MS63 with 0 better.