1891-CC Half Eagle (1891-CC $5) NGC AU58 CAC. Carson City Half Eagle. Muted mint luster is seen within the devices of this very pleasant 1891-CC Half Eagle. Light surface abrasion, a touch of wear on the tip of the coronet, and a couple of small reverse handling marks keep this coin from a mint state grade. Except for the second star, the strike is full and sharp on both sides, with every detail easily seen. In March, 1865, a coinage act was passed that required that the motto IN GOD WE TRUST be added to all coins large enough to accommodate it. The Mint interpreted this to mean for gold coinage the half eagle, the eagle, and the double eagle. The Liberty Head (Motto on Reverse) half eagle was created as a result of this mandate. (All silver coins larger than a dime also had the motto added.)

In 1884 Democrat Grover Cleveland became president. He fired all the Republican appointees including the top officials at the Carson City Mint and shut it down. A year later it reopened as an assay office. When Republican Benjamin Harrison became president, he fired Cleveland’s appointees and replaced them with Republicans. In 1889 coining operations at Carson City resumed. By 1893 the Nevada mines were not particularly productive. The combination of this low productivity and a scandal (a worker tried to smuggle gold out of the mint in his lunch box), and a struggling economy, the Mint Director, Robert Preston, ordered the Carson City Mint as a coining facility closed.