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Help educate a "TYPE" geek. C and D mintmarks especially.
topstuf
Posts: 14,803 ✭✭✭✭✭
After all these years, both collector and dealer, I don't "get" the attraction of mint marks. On "popular" series, yes. Like the 09-S VDB, 93-S, stuff that is COMMONLY collected in full sets.
What mystifies me is the mystique of C and D mint. Even the CC except I can see a "cowboy and indian" influence or "wild west."
Can anyone clue me in on the Charlotte and Dahlonega attraction? Just that they are ...rare?
Just want to know for my own understanding of the collector of these coins.
What mystifies me is the mystique of C and D mint. Even the CC except I can see a "cowboy and indian" influence or "wild west."
Can anyone clue me in on the Charlotte and Dahlonega attraction? Just that they are ...rare?
Just want to know for my own understanding of the collector of these coins.
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<< <i> I collect Dahlonega Gold. Special? Yes. For me it’s just a neighborhood thing I guess.
Dahlonega is one of my favorite playgrounds. I live an hour from Dahlonega which sits in the high foothills of the Appalachian (Smoky) Mountains about 70 miles north of Atlanta. I have hiked/backpacked the woods of the area, canoed the rivers of the area, and canoed through an abandoned gold mine. Dahlonega is the closest town to Springer Mountain, the southern trailhead (starting point) of the Appalachian Trail. My activities illustrate that Dahlonega is like no other mint location past or present. This is a mix of rural southern Appalachia and deep wilderness, much just as it was in 1838.
Today I drove past Price Hall, the building that currently sits on the foundation of the old US Mint, on my way to hike Blood Mountain and then Desoto Falls. I noticed that it was quieter today on the town square than usual. The old square is normally very busy, considering a town population of 5000. I thought of this thread as I drove the 12 miles from town to my trailhead.
It is my interest in history that drew me to coin collecting. And Dahlonega is great history. Not just great history but a great story. Some of the chapters are the First Gold Rush, Cherokee Indians and the First Steps On The Trail of Tears, The First and Only Branch Mint in a Rural Frontier Town, Politics, More Politics, Civil War, and Even More Politics. Dahlonega is very unique. It is a true American novel of the rise and fall of Southern Appalachia and the Branch Mint was a major chapter. Many great books exist on the subject and are worth reading if daring to take the risk. What risk you ask?.... Of course, the risk of getting hooked. The coins of Dahlonega are as unique and rare as its history. >>
I used to hike parts of the AT...
No offense, but if you have to ask the question, you won't understand the answer.
Why does any collector collect? Why collect So-Called Dollars? Why collect Civil War tokens? Why collect VAMs?
Check out the Southern Gold Society
Just sorta neat to think about much less own.
<< <i>No offense, but if you have to ask the question, you won't understand the answer. >>
OH NO!!!.,.......... it's.......ZEN !!!!!!!
<< <i>Buy a Dahlonega coin, try it on for size, and see if the magic works on you, too. >>
That's the real problem. I think I'm gettin interested. SAVE ME!!!
Man it looks like NICE ones are really tough.
Visit the SGS website (see below); read Doug Winter's articles (on the Pinnacle website and his old website); read Doug's books; visit the Gold Rush Gallery website (see their articles and bibliography).
It's not only that nice ones are tough, but, often, it's the "ugly" ones that are the most interesting!
Check out the Southern Gold Society
<< <i>That's the real problem. I think I'm gettin interested. SAVE ME!!! >>
You will need to save yourself. We welcome all who want to join the club. Just get used to thinking in terms of 200-250 extant as being a common date.
Read "The Neighborhood Mint". It's about the Dahlonega Mint. Why it was put there, the problems building & maintaining it, and all the characters that worked there.
It left me somewhat entertained about this mint. The book also lists who worked there during each year so you can see who very likely make your gold "D" coin by looking
back through the book at what job the person held.
I have none from C or D...
Let's change that!