1861-D $5 MS(PCGS#8290)

Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction U.S. Coins

Auctioneer

Stack's Bowers

Lot Number

3314

Grade

AU50

Price

78,000

Lot Description

One of the great rarities in the Dahlonega Mint half eagle series with a tiny mintage of 1,597 pieces under Federal authority. This is an attractive and especially desirable About Uncirculated survivor that is returning to the market for the first time since selling in our (Stack's) January 1974 offering of the Winter Collection. Handsome honey-olive color blankets surfaces that exhibit vivid rose-russet iridescence in the protected areas around the design elements and along the border denticles. Both sides retain blushes of the frosty to slightly granular luster for which the date is known. A bit lightly struck, especially toward the upper obverse and lower reverse borders, but there is appreciable boldness to the major design elements for a circulated survivor of this challenging issue. Wispy handling marks are evident, although none are worthy of singular attention.<p>As the Civil War loomed 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, the 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.<p>While there is no conclusive way of differentiating between the coins struck under Union authority and those produced under the auspices of the Confederacy, multiple striking characteristics might hold the clue. While most survivors are generally well made, a small number were struck from misaligned dies (as here) 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.<p>As an issue the 1861-D has an extant population of only 75 to 85 coins (per Doug Winter, <em>Gold Coins of the Dahlonega Mint: 1838-1861</em>, 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 our first offering for an About Uncirculated example in more than a decade, and it will surely see spiriting competition among advanced Southern gold enthusiasts.