Only 350,000 Were Made: This CAC 1889-CC Morgan Dollar Is a Carson City Legend
Some Morgan dollars owe their fame to tiny mintages. Others owe it to spectacular condition. The 1889-CC Morgan Dollar has something more.
It carries the history of a United States Mint that came back from the dead.
Stack’s Bowers Galleries will offer an impressive example graded MS-63 by PCGS, with CAC approval and a CMQ designation, in its Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction. The coin appears as Lot 2141 in Session 2, Rarities Night.
Moreover, it comes from the KBella Collection of Morgan Dollars, a collection assembled in the 1960s.
For Morgan specialists, however, the date on the coin tells the bigger story.
A Carson City Morgan With Serious Eye Appeal
This 1889-CC delivers more visual presence than collectors normally expect from a Select Uncirculated example.
Faintly semi-reflective fields contrast with frosty design elements. In addition, the strike brings out sharp detail across Liberty and the eagle.
Color adds another dimension.
Peripheral toning appears on both sides. The strongest color develops along the left side of the obverse. There, crescents of warm powder blue and reddish-tan frame Liberty.
Just as important, the surfaces show fewer distracting marks than collectors often encounter on the issue. Stack’s Bowers emphasizes the coin’s unusually smooth appearance for both the date and the MS-63 grade.
That combination matters on an 1889-CC.
PCGS notes that the issue often comes with an average strike. Higher-grade pieces can also prove difficult to locate with strong overall eye appeal. Stack’s Bowers likewise calls Mint State examples “few and far between” and identifies MS-63 as an important collecting level for the date.
Four Years of Silence at Carson City
The backstory begins after the Carson City Mint struck its 1885 Morgan dollars.
Then the presses went quiet.
The U.S. Mint states that the government shut down the Carson City facility in 1885 for political reasons. The Mint remained closed through most of President Grover Cleveland’s first administration. Coin production did not resume until the fall of 1889.
The shutdown came during one of America’s fiercest monetary debates.
Cleveland opposed the growing free-silver movement and favored policies designed to protect the nation’s gold reserves. That position placed his administration at odds with many western mining interests, which wanted the government to absorb greater quantities of silver.
Carson City sat directly in the middle of that fight.
Congress had authorized the Nevada branch mint during the great western mining boom. The nearby Comstock Lode gave the region enormous importance as a source of precious metal. Therefore, a federal mint in Carson City carried both economic and political significance.
Morgan dollars themselves also emerged from that broader silver struggle. Congress created the conditions for massive silver-dollar production through the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. The first Morgan Dollars followed that same year.
The Election That Brought the CC Mint Back
Politics changed again in 1888.
Republican Benjamin Harrison defeated Cleveland in the presidential election. Soon afterward, the Carson City Mint prepared to return to coin production.
However, workers could not simply restart the presses.
The dormant facility required repairs and preparation after years without coinage operations. As a result, production did not resume until October 1889. The U.S. Mint confirms that coins began rolling from the Carson City presses again that fall.
That late start left very little time.
The Carson City Mint produced only 350,000 Morgan dollars dated 1889-CC.
Yet that number tells only part of the story.
Why 1889-CC Is Rarer Than Its Mintage Suggests
The 1889-CC does not claim the lowest mintage among Carson City Morgan dollars.
The 1885-CC holds that distinction with a production of only 228,000 pieces. Nevertheless, far more 1885-CC dollars survived in high grades.
That difference turned the 1889-CC into the real condition prize.
PCGS estimates that fewer than 30,000 examples survive across all grades. More importantly, it estimates only about 5,000 coins remain in MS-60 or better.
Then comes one of the most remarkable statistics in the entire Carson City Morgan story.
The federal government sold nearly 2.8 million Carson City Morgan dollars through the famous General Services Administration sales of the 1970s. Yet PCGS reports that the GSA offerings contained only one 1889-CC Morgan Dollar.
That single fact explains much of the date’s mystique.
Millions of other “CC” dollars emerged from government vaults and entered collector cabinets. The 1889-CC largely missed that numismatic resurrection.
Consequently, collectors today prize the issue far beyond what its original mintage alone might suggest.
The King of Carson City Morgan Dollars
Stack’s Bowers calls the 1889-CC the most elusive Carson City Morgan dollar in Mint State. PCGS likewise identifies it as the rarest of the famed “CC” Morgan issues based on surviving population.
Collectors often place it beside the 1893-S when discussing the great business-strike keys to the Morgan series.
At higher Mint State levels, the numbers become extraordinarily thin.
PCGS records an auction record of $881,250 for the famous PCGS MS-68 example sold by Stack’s Bowers in July 2013.
The present MS-63 occupies a more attainable level than that legendary finest-known coin. Still, CAC approval sharply narrows the field.
Stack’s Bowers reports a CAC stickered population of 18 at MS-63, with nine finer for the issue.
Therefore, this is not simply an Uncirculated 1889-CC.
It combines the key date, Mint State preservation, CAC approval, attractive toning, strong surfaces, and an old-time collection provenance.
For a serious Morgan dollar cabinet or advanced Carson City set, those qualities rarely come together.
More than 135 years after Carson City restarted its presses, this silver dollar still carries the drama of that moment.
The “CC” beneath the eagle may occupy only two tiny letters.
For Morgan collectors, few mintmarks say more.
1889-CC Morgan Dollar Specifications
- Denomination: One Dollar
- Series: Morgan Dollar
- Date and Mint: 1889-CC
- Mint: Carson City
- Designer: George T. Morgan
- Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper
- Weight: 26.73 grams
- Diameter: 38.10 mm
- Edge: Reeded
- Mintage: 350,000
- PCGS Number: 7190
- NGC ID: 2559
- Grade of Auction Coin: PCGS MS-63
- Additional Designations: CAC, CMQ
- Provenance: KBella Collection of Morgan Dollars, assembled in the 1960s
- Auction: Stack’s Bowers Galleries Summer 2026 Global Showcase Auction
- Lot: 2141
- CAC Stickered Population: 18 at MS-63; 9 finer
