One of the many interesting facts about the rare coin business at this point in time is that the focus in the gold market is clearly on generics and semi-numismatic items and, at least for the time being, off many rare coins. How has this shift of focus affected the Liberty Head double eagle market and, more specifically, the market for common date Carson City issues?   
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While I am personally still a fan of collecting gold coins by sets, I understand that this method is not for everyone. Some individuals find set collecting monotonous; others lack the patience to assemble anything but a short set. And other collectors simply do not have the financial resources available to work on a set that might not only have a long duration but may contain many expensive coins as well.   
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In their recent pre-Long Beach Elite Auction, Superior sold a nice set of Carson City half eagles and eagles. These coins were interesting due to the fact that they were in old green label PCGS holders and, as one might expect, a number of coins appeared to have considerable upgrade potential. The half eagles were led by an 1870-CC graded EF40 by PCGS.   
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For our next State of the Market Report, we’re going to take a look at Carson City gold coinage. How have the half eagles, eagles and double eagles from this ultra-popular western branch mint fared in the past few years? I. Overview The number of serious Carson City gold coin collectors appears to have increased in the last few years.   
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N.M. from Texas recently asked an excellent question which I’d like to try my best and answer. His question, in part, is as follows: “It seems as though the grading services are holding coins like Indian $10 and Saints to a higher standard than say CC $20’s or Territorials, etc. I see MS61 or MS62 CC $20 and Assay pieces with terrible surface preservation relative to what 20th Century coins show for the same grade.   
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Last month we looked at how the sale of the Old West and the Morgan collections of Carson City gold coinage impacted the market for half eagles from this mint. This month, we’ll look at the results as they apply to Carson City eagles. Just a few refreshers before we get right into the number crunching. The Old West collection was sold at auction by ANR in August 2006.   
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