Dahlonega Gold at its Primitive Finest...meet Darla, the new Georgia Lady with the Gold Dollar Colle
ambro51
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By 1854 the branch mint at Dahlonega Georgia...was on borrowed time. Gold deposits from California, for several years a big part of Dahlonegas bullion supply, had dwindled down with the opening of the new mint in San Francisco. Even so, coinage did continue for several years, but in terms of poor quality, it had hit bottom between 1854 to 1857. The machine used to make the planchets..to roll them to the proper thickness was a thorn in the side for the mint workers. The wrote complaining the rollers were too soft, and produced irregular planchets. The home mint at Philadelphia had called them out for poor quality, finding many coins underweight, a situation which improved after the exchange of correspondence.
There was a lot going on with the Gold Dollar in 1854. By now, the Philadelphia mint had them down to an art form...a lot did end up as jewelry and its easy to see how. Some of the finest struck Type 1's are the Philadelphia mint 1854 coins. San Francisco had hit the ground running and turned out some spectacular specimens...some almost prooflike, and even the general circulation strike coin was typically strongly stuck and full of luster. Charlotte 'took the year off', so for once we cant comment on their poor quality....Dahlonega though continued on doing small runs of gold dollars, less than 10 thousand...with mostly all being eagerly used in commerce. Very few were ever saved by collectors of the day, and come of the finest known come from small hoards that only came to light after their circulation days were long over.
The gold dollars coined by Dahlonega in 1854 numbered only 2935 struck, which is the lowest mintage of any of the Type 1 D mint dollars. The delivery took place in August. even though the dies were at the mint in January of the year. Three reverse dies were sent down from Philadelphia, and the obverse used was an old one from 1853 (which MAY have been left over from 1852 and before). The Obverse has many raised die scratches around the stars, and some rust damage which causes raised pits on the coin. The Reverse die has diagnostic die scratches below the 1 , and to the left of the Mintmark. Denticles are typically weak in areas. Usually the strike is light to medium, and clashmarks can be seen. The weak reverse strike make this a coin which can only be graded by wear on the obverse, the hair and details.
Breen had thought between 25 and 30 existed, QDB estimates 20 or so MS, and about 60 circulated survivors. Taglione wrote he felt there were only four coins which were truly MS. Id hate to be the grader trying to figure this coin out....it clearly has an irregularly tapered planchet, as one side has really failed to form up into the denticles well at all. Just that wide area with porous granular areas of metal. The other side....different world, full strike stunning luster and sharp denticles. What do you grade? Is it a mint error coin with a tapered planchet, in which case you'd be grading that lovely area on the reverse from 9PM to 12PM? How important to normal grading are full denticles? I dont really know, but we will find out. Just a nice coin here with a lousy planchet, a tiny gem that will look much better in hand rather than on this 20X monitor!
So now at over 50 percent complete for the series, lets welcome in Darla, 1854 D Gold Dollar
There was a lot going on with the Gold Dollar in 1854. By now, the Philadelphia mint had them down to an art form...a lot did end up as jewelry and its easy to see how. Some of the finest struck Type 1's are the Philadelphia mint 1854 coins. San Francisco had hit the ground running and turned out some spectacular specimens...some almost prooflike, and even the general circulation strike coin was typically strongly stuck and full of luster. Charlotte 'took the year off', so for once we cant comment on their poor quality....Dahlonega though continued on doing small runs of gold dollars, less than 10 thousand...with mostly all being eagerly used in commerce. Very few were ever saved by collectors of the day, and come of the finest known come from small hoards that only came to light after their circulation days were long over.
The gold dollars coined by Dahlonega in 1854 numbered only 2935 struck, which is the lowest mintage of any of the Type 1 D mint dollars. The delivery took place in August. even though the dies were at the mint in January of the year. Three reverse dies were sent down from Philadelphia, and the obverse used was an old one from 1853 (which MAY have been left over from 1852 and before). The Obverse has many raised die scratches around the stars, and some rust damage which causes raised pits on the coin. The Reverse die has diagnostic die scratches below the 1 , and to the left of the Mintmark. Denticles are typically weak in areas. Usually the strike is light to medium, and clashmarks can be seen. The weak reverse strike make this a coin which can only be graded by wear on the obverse, the hair and details.
Breen had thought between 25 and 30 existed, QDB estimates 20 or so MS, and about 60 circulated survivors. Taglione wrote he felt there were only four coins which were truly MS. Id hate to be the grader trying to figure this coin out....it clearly has an irregularly tapered planchet, as one side has really failed to form up into the denticles well at all. Just that wide area with porous granular areas of metal. The other side....different world, full strike stunning luster and sharp denticles. What do you grade? Is it a mint error coin with a tapered planchet, in which case you'd be grading that lovely area on the reverse from 9PM to 12PM? How important to normal grading are full denticles? I dont really know, but we will find out. Just a nice coin here with a lousy planchet, a tiny gem that will look much better in hand rather than on this 20X monitor!
So now at over 50 percent complete for the series, lets welcome in Darla, 1854 D Gold Dollar
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Comments
It is an interesting coin as it appears to be about 3% off center struck?
<< <i>Ungraded, from a long time dealer at a good price with a 100% guarantee. He's letting me submit it, if I'm not happy with the outcome full refund. >>
Cannot do better than that.
Its tough to stop at 10, or 11....in fact all the C and D mint coins have a very high rarity level, as do all the San Fran coins in higher grades as well as all the Philadelphia coins from 1863 to 1872.
The 1870 S and the 1873 closed 3 are also way up the rarity scale.
The more I look at the pics of "Darla" ...the more I can appreciate her appeal... a coin with an interesting story to tell...
If I recall correctly, wasn't Darla the name of the "love interest" in the Little Rascals? Like that character, this coin posseses the same traits... quirky and different, yet very cute and likeable
Also... regarding oreville's observation of the coin seeming to be off center... I think it is an "optical illusion" due to the tapered planchet Ambro mentioned... it seems that from 6:00 to 1:00 that there was not enough metal to fully fill the die, resulting in an almost complete lack of detail... and the illusion of an off-center strike...
Please keep sharing your passion for this series of tiny coins... good things can come in small packages...
(edited for spelling