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COOL COIN SHOWCASE, #4, March 14, 2026

Dahlonega



Hi Folks,

            Dahlonega.  A small town in Georgia that happened to have a branch mint from 1838 to 1861.  It was founded, along with the Charlotte mint to support mining operations in the Appalachian Mountains.  The Carolinas, Georgia and surrounding areas were having a gold rush in the 1830’s.  In those days it was a dangerous task to take your mined metals all the way to Philadelphia and it was a journey of many days.  So congress authorized building both of these mints, along with the mint in New Orleans.  The Act of 1834 placed the US on the gold standard (over silver) and resulted in an intrinsic value for gold at $1.05.  What followed was the opening of bank vaults for their long-stored gold coins for deposit to the mint for recoinage, an influx of gold from Europe for melting to make US gold, and a feverish search for the yellow metal across the US. 

            Gold was first found in North Carolina in the early 1800s. In Georgia gold was discovered in 1828 in what would become Dahlonega, where ores rich in gold were present in what was called the Dahlonega Belt.  This resulted in an influx of thousands of miners to the region.  By the mid-1830’s in both regions, a record amount of gold was being mined and southern gold gave these states leverage to create their own mints.  This was done in congress with the Act of March 3, 1835.  Three years later with many challenges and difficulties, mints at Charlotte and Dahlonega were in operation. 

            Both mints only produced gold coins – dollars, quarter eagles, three dollars (only 1 year in Dahlonega, none in Charlotte), and half eagles.   Production was not in large quantities.  At Dahlonega, about 74,000 gold dollars were produced from 1849 to 1861.  Quarter eagles were produced from 1839 to 1861 with a mintage of about 198,000, and about 1.1 million half eagles were minted from 1838 to 1861.  In 1854, Dahlonega also produced a Three Dollar Gold piece, with a whopping mintage of 1,120.  Suffice to say, any Charlotte or Dahlonega gold piece is rare and a true treasure to have in one’s collection. 

            In depth information on the history of the Charlotte and Dahlonega Mints and their coins is available at Doug Winter’s website: 


 

Two books are also excellent references for all things Dahlonega:

 

Gold Coins of the Dahlonega Mint, 1838-1861

 

 

The Neighborhood Mint – Dahlonega in the Age of Jackson

 

 

 

The history of the Dahlonega mint (and its siblings in Charlotte and New Orleans), in combination with the limited availability of the gold coins produced there, makes the collecting of these gratifying but very challenging.  Not only are there just a few of any date and type available on the market in any given year, finding choice examples that are original and not scrubbed and dubbed adds to the complexity of collecting them either for type sets, or even for date sets.  Occasionally a ‘hoard’ of a few to a dozen will come out at the big auction houses, and Doug has a steady, but not massive, supply of D-mint coins to offer that are quickly scooped up as soon as he lists them.  Very few other dealers will have more than maybe 1 or 2 at any given time, if any at all.  The majority of these are not CACed because they lack the originality expected to be approved by them. I cannot remember how many auction viewing sessions I have done in the past 2 decades only to be disappointed with the D-mint offerings.  When one desires to obtain samples with little to no ‘enhancement’, the choices of Dahlonega gold coins are few and far between. 

 

Let’s take for example the 1844-D half eagle.  It is one of the most common of the D-mint half eagles where Doug estimates there are 325-375 extant.  As of the time of this writing, only 47 of these have been approved by CAC or put in a graded CACG holder.  So this is about 12 to 14% of the extant examples.  Since the beginning of 2020, Heritage has had 27 of these auctioned in details holders to a grade of MS62, or on average about 5 coins per year.  Out of these 27, only 2 were approved by CAC, an MS62 example in January of 2025, and an AU55 coin in April of 2020.  Stacks has had a few more because of the offering of Fairmont Hoard coins, but suffice to say that original examples of any Dahlonega gold coins, and especially original coins that meet CAC standards, are simply, uncommon.  Even in the case of a ‘common’ date like the1844-D half eagle. 

 

With this in mind, I always keep my eye open for any Dahlonega gold coin and scoop up any cool ones I can find.  I have managed to obtain 4 in the 2 years that Desert Moon Numismatics has been open.  One of these, I obtained on Dealer Day at the ANA World’s Fair of Money in 2024 that sold 2 days later at my table.  Since then, I have managed to find 3 that meet my expectations and are the reason for the Cool Coin Showcase.  Two are in AU58 and one is in AU55.  All are approved by CAC. 

 

Please have a look at the descriptions of these Cool Coins offered here by clicking on the images.

 

As always, please contact us through desertmoonnm@yahoo.com if you have an interest in any of our coins.

 

Thanks for reading!

Best, DM




 
 
 

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