What is the value of an 1886-cc Morgan dollar?

Answer 1

This is a good question!

The Carson City mint was not minting Morgan dollars during 1886 according to several sources. I've also heard that some of the dies were transferred to New Orleans at the end of the 1885 run.

I have just seen an un-certified 1886-CC Morgan dollar that appears to be in fine to very fine condition this evening and am researching for any information on it. Knowing you may also have one is re-assuring of something, albeit I'm not sure of what! It may be these coins were part of an early 1886 New Orleans mint run, assuming any Carson City dies were transferred to that mint prior to the 1886 run. This is speculation only, but I base this idea on the fact New Orleans apparently minted coins in 1900 using Carson City dies, but at that time the CC mint mark was altered before release into circulation by the O mint.

Another possibility could be these are 1886-year trial specimens from Carson City that someone snuck out the door, again pure speculation in the absence of mint records.

Another could be the dates on these were altered ... but I didn't see anything that smacks of alteration under magnification.

I've recently learned that the New Orleans and San Francisco mints had micro mintmarks hidden on the Morgan dollar coins during this period. I am checking to see if the CC mint included one as well. The PCGS checks the coins for the micro mint mark which helps to verify authenticity.

Now watch some bags of 1886 CC Morgans from some shipwreck suddenly appear on the Coin Channel!

UPDATE: After some further surfing of 1886-CC Morgan dollars I am seeing a lot of replica coins of that date and mint being sold on a variety of websites. These coins are slightly underweight possibly not even the silver/copper content. I should have expected this up front! The replicas are supposed to be marked, if they are legitimate illegitimates.