Owner Comments:
The 1875-CC Twenty Cent Piece has long held a special place in the minds of some collectors because the Carson City, Nevada mint, which was in the home state of Senator John Percival Jones, produced it. Jones introduced the legislation that authorized the double dime in the guise of consumer protection. Jones claimed that the twenty cent coin would prevent merchants from overcharging their customers when they presented a quarter to pay for a ten cent item. Having no change, Jones argued that the customer usually received only a dime in change. He argued that a twenty cent coin would end this unfair advantage. In reality Jones was actually looking for a way to expand the use of silver which was then being produced in abundance from the Comstock Lode and other western state mines.
The concept of the Twenty Cent Piece had been considered years before it became a brief reality. In the 1790s the denomination had been considered as an alternative to the quarter dollar, but the influence of the Spanish two reales or "two bits" won the day. Soon after the Twenty Cent Piece reached circulation, consumers were confused because the two coins were so similar in size. It quickly became evident that the Twenty Cent Piece and the quarter could not circulate side by side in their present formats, and the double dime was soon dropped.
Overall the Carson City mint produced 133,290 Twenty Cent Pieces in 1875. A one or two thousand of these coins may have been melted in 1876 when the CC mint melted almost its entire production of 10,000 double dimes it made that year, thereby creating a famous 19th century rarity.
The 1875-CC Twenty Cent Piece that is displayed above is in a way a remarkable coin. Although it is not an unusually high grade piece in the MS-62 grade, it is very sharply struck. Most 1875-CC Twenty Cent Pieces show weakness on the eagle's left wing on the reverse and on the corresponding area on the obverse in the shield area, near the word "LIBERTY" on the obverse. Although a few marks here and there limit this coin's technical grade, clarity of the strike is most pleasing.