Historic Final Year 1861-D Half Eagle
Condition Census Choice Mint State
1861-D Liberty Head Half Eagle. Winter 47-GG, the only known dies. MS-63 (PCGS). CAC.
From the final year of coinage operations at this facility, and as an issue with an indelible link to the Southern Confederacy, the 1861-D is the most numismatically significant and desirable Dahlonega Mint half eagle. The offered coin is one of the finest examples of the issue. Visually appealing, the color is bright orange-gold with satiny luster throughout. Overall smooth surfaces as expected for the Choice Mint State grade, with strong eye appeal and a pleasing quality to the fields and design elements. The strike is better than average although diagnostic softness is evident on the hair curls over Liberty's brow, the eagle's left talon and the uppermost arrow feather, and here and there around the peripheries on both sides. For identification there are three tiny nicks in the upper obverse field between the top of Liberty's head and star 8. As the new dawn broke on the Confederacy in early 1861, the Dahlonega Mint found itself moving with the tide. The facility had received two 1861-dated obverse dies on January 7, 1861, which had been dispatched from the Philadelphia Mint on December 19 of the preceding year. One of these obverses was paired with a leftover reverse from the 1860-D issue to strike 1,597 half eagles under Federal authority. This mintage had to be achieved sometime between January 7 and April 8, for on the latter date Dahlonega Mint passed from Federal to Southern control. With spirits high and gold ever more precious in the South, many of the remaining planchets were then coined under Confederate authority. Perhaps another 1,000 to 2,000 examples of the 1861-D half eagle were struck at that time. While there is no conclusive way of differentiating between the coins struck under Union authority and those produced under the auspices of the new Southern Confederacy, multiple striking characteristics might hold the clue. While most survivors are generally well made, a small number were struck from misaligned dies and are slightly off center. Some numismatic scholars have suggested that the latter are the 1861-D half eagles that were produced after the Dahlonega Mint fell into rebel hands. As an issue the 1861-D has an extant population of only 75 to 85 coins (per Doug Winter, Gold Coins of the Dahlonega Mint: 1838-1861, 2023 edition). Much of the census is composed of coins grading VF to EF, with only occasional forays into AU. Mint State survivors, of which there are no more than a dozen distinct specimens, have always been the province of the most advanced numismatists. This is one of the very finest, and would serve as a leading highlight in even the most advanced collection.
PCGS# 8290. NGC ID: 25VM.
PCGS Population: 4; 0 finer. CAC Stickered Population: 2; 0.