NGC Carson City Mint 150 Years Special Label Commemorates the Frontier Mint's Sesquicentennial

On February 4, 2020, the Carson City Mint celebrates its 150th anniversary. For all coins with the “CC” mintmark, Numismatic Guaranty Corporation® (NGC®) is offering a new Carson City Mint 150 Years Special Label, paying tribute to the occasion and the Carson City Mint’s important place in numismatic history.

For many collectors, the Carson City Mint evokes the American Wild West and its enduring mystique — pioneers and prospectors, lawmen and outlaws, gamblers and gunslingers forging their way in the untamed territories west of the Mississippi River. At the start of the era, Carson City was a fledgling mining town about to strike it big.

An 1890-CC Liberty Head $20 graded NGC MS 62 with the NGC Carson City Mint 150 Years Special Label Click images to enlarge.

In 1859, the first gold and (primarily) silver found in the region began to be extracted from what would eventually be known as the Comstock Lode — the largest discovery of gold and silver ever made in the United States.

Due to the difficulty of transporting the gold and silver across the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the nearest mint in San Francisco, Congress passed legislation in 1863 to establish a mint in Carson City. Construction began in 1865, and it was completed in 1869. The Carson City Mint produced gold and silver coinage from 1870 only until 1893, making the Mint an icon of the American frontier, wholly of its time and place.

The Carson City Mint is celebrating its birthday by striking a special sesquicentennial .999 fine silver medallion on Coin Press No. 1, 150 years to the day that the same press produced the Mint’s first coins — Seated Liberty Silver Dollars. Together, Coin Press No. 1 and the Carson City Mint represent the rarest minting duo in the world, as only commemorative medallions have been struck there since 1976.

Significantly, Coin Press No. 1 was the Mint’s only press for its first five years of operation. After the Mint closed, it served the Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver mints before returning to its home in Carson City.

An 1883-CC Morgan Silver Dollar graded NGC MS 65 with the NGC Carson City Mint 150 Years Special Label Click images to enlarge.

The NGC Carson City Mint 150 Years Special Label (#1292) is available to all NGC Collectors Society members and Authorized Dealers for submissions of any Carson City coins for an additional $5 (USD) fee. The Special Label fee is waived for bulk submissions.

NGC Collectors Society paid members can submit their coins directly to NGC. Not an NGC Collectors Society member? Paid memberships start at just $25 (USD)/year. Join today >

Questions? Contact NGC Customer service at service@NGCcoin.com or 1-800-NGC-COIN (1-800-642-2646).

For bulk submissions, contact Scott Heller at Sheller@NGCcoin.com or 941-360-3990 or Miles Standish at Miles@NGCcoin.com or 949-922-0515.

To see other NGC Special Labels, click here.