The Dahlonega Mint was a former

branch A branch, sometimes called a ramus in botany, is a woody structural member connected to the central trunk of a tree (or sometimes a shrub). Large branches are known as boughs and small branches are known as twigs. The term '' twig'' usuall ...

of the

United States Mint The United States Mint is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury responsible for producing coinage for the United States to conduct its trade and commerce, as well as controlling the movement of bullion. It does not produce paper money; tha ...

built during the

Georgia Gold Rush The Georgia Gold Rush was the second significant gold rush in the United States and the first in Georgia, and overshadowed the previous rush in North Carolina. It started in 1829 in present-day Lumpkin County near the county seat, Dahlonega, a ...

to help the miners get their gold assayed and

minted Minted is an online marketplace of premium design goods created by independent artists and designers. The company sources art and design from a community of more than 16,000 independent artists from around the world. Minted offers artists two bus ...

, without having to travel to the

Philadelphia Mint The Philadelphia Mint in Philadelphia was created from the need to establish a national identity and the needs of commerce in the United States. This led the Founding Fathers of the United States to make an establishment of a continental national ...

. It was located at (34°31.8′N 83°59.2′W ) in

Dahlonega The city of Dahlonega () is the county seat of Lumpkin County, Georgia, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 5,242, and in 2018 the population was estimated to be 6,884. Dahlonega is located at the north end of ...

, Lumpkin County, Georgia. Coins produced at the Dahlonega Mint bear the "D"

mint mark A mint mark is a letter, symbol or an inscription on a coin indicating the mint where the coin was produced. It should not be confused with a mintmaster mark which is the mark of the mintmaster. History Mint marks were first developed to locate ...

. That mint mark is used today by the

Denver Mint The Denver Mint is a branch of the United States Mint that struck its first coins on February 1, 1906. The mint is still operating and producing coins for circulation, as well as mint sets and commemorative coins. Coins produced at the Denver Min ...

, which opened in 1897, over three decades after the Dahlonega Mint closed. All coins from the Dahlonega Mint are gold, in the $1, $2.50, $3, and $5 denominations, and bear dates in the range 1838–1861.

Creation

The Mint Act of 1835, established by the

United States Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

on 3 March, established "one branch at the city of

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

for the coinage of gold and silver; one branch at the town of

Charlotte Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...

...for the coinage of gold only; and one branch at or near Dahlonega, in Lumpkin County, in the state of Georgia, also for the coinage of gold only."

Ignatius Alphonso Few Ignatius Alphonso Few was an attorney, farmer, and preacher who was selected to lead "a school for manual labor", which subsequently failed and was replaced by a program for “sub-freshmen” at the newly established Emory College. Few became th ...

, appointed commissioner, bought ten acres south of Dahlonega for $1,050 (equal to $ today) in August 1835, and hired the architect Benjamin Towns, the lowest bidder at $33,450 (equal to $ today), to construct the mint within eighteen months. Mint machinery was installed in 1837, which included "cutting presses, a fly wheel, a drawing frame, a crank shaft, a coining press, and eighteen annealing pans." The coining press could make "fifty to sixty gold coins per minute." Superintendent Dr. Joseph Singleton, opened the mint in February 1838. About a thousand ounces of gold were deposited in the first week, and the first coins consisting of eighty five-dollar gold pieces, were minted on 17 April.

Production

The mint produced coins every year from 1838 through 1861. Denominations produced included $1.00; $2.50 (

quarter eagle The quarter eagle was a gold coin issued by the United States with a value of two hundred and fifty cents, or two dollars and fifty cents. It was given its name in the Coinage Act of 1792, as a derivation from the US ten-dollar eagle coin. His ...

s); $3.00 (1854 only); and $5.00 (

half eagle The half eagle is a United States coin that was produced for circulation from 1795 to 1929 and in commemorative and bullion coins since 1983. Composed almost entirely of gold, its face value of five dollars is half that of the eagle coin. Prod ...

s).

The Civil War

When the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and t ...

broke out in 1861, the Dahlonega Mint was seized by the Confederates. It is believed that after the Confederates took over the mint in 1861, that some gold dollars and half eagles were minted under the authority of the Confederate States Government. The exact number of 1861-D gold dollars produced is unknown, while approximately 1,597 1861-D half eagles were struck. Because of their relatively low mintage, all Dahlonega-minted gold coins are rare. It is generally accepted that gold coins estimated to exceed $6 million were

here.

Post Civil War

After the end of the Civil War, The United States Government decided against reopening the mint. The building was unused until the founding of

North Georgia College The University of North Georgia (UNG) is a public senior military college with multiple campuses in Georgia. It is part of the University System of Georgia. The university was established on January 8, 2013 by a merger of North Georgia College ...

in 1873. The mint building was used as the main academic and administrative building for the college until a fire destroyed the original building in December 1878. A new building for the college was erected on the foundations of the old mint building. This building is now named Price Memorial Hall after William P. Price, the founder of the college, and is still used by the college today.

Gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

from this area also covers the exterior of the domed roof over the rotunda of the

Georgia State Capitol The Georgia State Capitol is an architecturally and historically significant building in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The building has been named a National Historic Landmark which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. As ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,7 ...

. Local media often refer to the

state legislature A state legislature is a legislative branch or body of a political subdivision in a federal system. Two federations literally use the term "state legislature": * The legislative branches of each of the fifty state governments of the United Sta ...

's activities as what's going on "under the gold dome". After the capitol building was gold leafed citizens of Dahlonega began a campaign to gold leaf Price Memorial Hall after the same fashion as the capitol. For other

facilities, see ''

Historical United States mints The following is a list of United States mints, past and present: From 1965 to 1967 all U.S. coins were struck without mint marks. As it was clear from Gresham's law that the rising cost of silver (and the ensuing removal of most silver from co ...

''.

Superintendents

Six men acted as Superintendent of the Dahlonega Mint. *

Joseph Singleton Joseph Edward Victor Fairfield Daveran Singleton (1 March 1879 – 24 October 1946) was an actor of the silent era. An Australian, he appeared in 74 films between 1913 and 1925. He was born in Melbourne. Selected filmography * ''Shon the ...

, 1838–1841 * Paul Rossignol, 1841–1843 * James Fairlie Cooper, 1843–1849 * Anderson Redding, 1849–1853 * Julius Patton, 1853–1860 * George Kellogg, 1860–1861

References

External links

U.S. Mint'Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills': Gold and Gold Mining in Georgia, 1830s-1940s
from the

Digital Library of Georgia The Digital Library of Georgia (DLG) is an online, public collection of documents and media about the history and culture of the state of Georgia, United States. The collection includes more than a million digitized objects from more than 200 Georg ...

{{US currency and coinage 1837 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia Gold Rush United States Mint Landmarks in Georgia (U.S. state) Mints of the United States Lumpkin County, Georgia