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The Dahlonega Mint -- Saga of Southern GoldThe Dahlonega Mint was one of two “gold only” southern mints. Built from the same plans as the Charlotte Mint, its history ran a somewhat different course.Georgia Gold RushGold was discovered in 1828 near Nuckollsville, Georgia, a town that would soon change its name to Auraria, from the Latin word for gold.Word got out – people started coming into the area, which had been occupied by the Cherokee. The nearby town of Dahlonega was named for the Cherokee phrase for “yellow money”. To clear the way for gold mining, the Cherokee were moved to Oklahoma by government decree, followed by a state sponsored land lottery which awarded each winner a 40 acre tract of land likely to produce gold. The Case for a Local Federal MintAs in later “gold rushes”, like the ones in California and Colorado, the one in northern Georgia featured a rapid influx of independent miners who soon experienced the vagaries of utilizing their output as a medium of exchange.Liquidity was a problem because valuation was a problem. Assaying was something of a black art in the gold fields. Private minters like Templeton Reid in Georgia were often suspect in their methods and the actual versus the stated value of their coins. More reliable results were produced at the Philadelphia Mint, but the transportation of bullion over a long distance was equally risky. Accordingly, branch mint legislation was approved in 1835 for new mints at Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans. Dahlonega Mint Construction and OpeningThough its architectural plans for the Dahlonega and Charlotte mints, with the same building materials specified, the Georgia project suffered for reasons not present in North Carolina.The brick used in building the Charlotte mint could not be produced anywhere near Dahlonega. The local clay was not suitable for high quality bricks. Nor would bringing in brick from a distance be economically practical. The local labor supply at Dahlonega was small and unreliable. Anyone with energy was more interested in making a mint than working in one, so to speak. And finally, the gentleman appointed to manage the construction of the mint, Ignatius Few, had no known management experience, or -- as was later confirmed, -- ability. Furthermore, Few was ill. One could say that his appearances at the site were few and far between. When Franklin Peale was sent from the mint in Philadelphia to inspect the mint on completion, he did not withhold his criticism of Few’s results. But, due to the pressing need for a functioning local mint, he also did not withhold his acceptance of the structure for its intended purpose. Under it’s new Superintendent, Joseph Singleton, eighty half eagles – the first Dahlonega Mint coins -- were coined on April 21, 1838. Green GoldThe early coins of Dahlonega are generally what is called “green gold”. The gold has a slight greenish cast to it. This is due to the relatively high percentage of silver found in these coins.The government practice regarding the alloying of coin gold was to keep the proportion of silver within the range of 25 to 50 parts per thousand. Native Georgia gold was usually better than .900 fine, the standard for US gold coins then in force. The silver content edged toward the high end of the allowable range, so, rather than separate out the naturally occurring silver from the raw Georgia gold, the mint simply added copper until the standard of purity for gold coinage was met. OperationsMint operations at Dahlonega were similar to what was being done at its sister mint in Charlotte – a gold only coinage, produced on a steam powered press on the first floor powered by a steam engine in the basement.For the most part, the mint provided the service to the community that was mandated. When gold was discovered in California, and later in Colorado, Dahlonega was called upon to help process and coin gold from those areas. With the flow of Georgia gold was in decline, the Dahlonega Mint coins of the early 1850’s are most likely made from California gold. Quality IssuesMint marked dies were prepared at the central mint in Philadelphia, then shipped down to Dahlonega. Apologists for the often weakly struck coins suggest that Philadelphia saved defective dies for the branch mints, keeping the best for itself.More careful analysis of the coins in quantity refute this – there are many examples of weak and strong strikes from the same die pairs! More likely weak strike causes are defective planchets (the blank coin disks as they are prior to striking) due to worn rollers in the rolling mill, or impurities in the copper portion of the alloy. Political ConcernsWhat finally ended production at the Dahlonega Mint was, of course, the American Civil War. Unlike at Charlotte, coining operations continued for some weeks after Georgia seceded from the Union.But soon the mint’s superintendent tendered his resignation, shipped remaining coinage off to the new Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, dismissed the staff, and closed the doors. After The WarAt war’s end the US government transferred the former Dahlonega Mint to the state of Georgia. The building became the seat of the North Georgia Agricultural College in 1873.Five years later it burned to the ground.
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