Small update on 1900-O/CC varieties

[RogerB]

Recently discovered documents indicate that the original Carson City dies used for the O/CC variety came from the 1892-CC stock. Evidently Carson ordered more dies than needed that year and that the dies were shipped soft, Excess were returned after new 1893-CC dies had shipped, so the engraver kept 1892 reverses in his inventory. At that time no one knew about possible closure of Carson as a mint.

More to come, once I get the rest of the puzzle pieces - looking through all my old Cracker Jax boxes.

[alefzero]

So it appears a bit unlikely that those reverses produced any CC dollars before being reappropriated in New Orleans. Not entirely impossible, but probably not.

[RogerB]

Right. It seems they were never hardened at Carson and were returned to Philadelphia with mintmarks intact. If correct, that also eliminates any chance of finding a used Carson die that was softened, re-mintmarked, and then used a New Orleans in 1900.

[vampicker]

Sounds like you were right about the '1899 discovery' story being pure fabrication

[lewisr2]

I don't remember reading anything about the "1899 discovery" story. Please provide the ingo again.

[lewisr2]

Sorry
provide info -- not ingo.

[RogerB]

Well .... still searching for additional data, and then will do a more through analysis including why old dies were sent out in the first place.

[vampicker]

I've seen it a few places. Bowers refers to an 1899 return of leftover dies in his 'Silver Dollars and Trade Dollars of the United States A complete Encyclopedia' But a likely source of the story is Breen's Encyclopedia entry for the bold O/CC, his number 5671. He states six reverse dies were found during removal of the CC Assay Office furnishings. Like much of Breen's work, there's a better than 50-50 chance this story was nothing more than speculation presented as fact.

[RogerB]

Breen presented nothing to support his story. None of the presently available Carson Mint records or inventories support the story.

The 1899 story was popularized by quotation in "The Mint on Carson Street," one of the standard books about the Carson Mint.