1845-Da

The 1845-D Liberty Head half eagle came out of the Dahlonega Mint in north Georgia, struck in 90,629 pieces during a year when the small branch facility was hitting its modest stride. Dahlonega had opened in 1838 to convert nearby placer and vein gold into federal coin, and the mid-1840s represent its steadiest production window for the half eagle denomination. The 1845 issue is a single-variety year, with one working obverse and reverse pairing and none of the date-size or mintmark-size varieties that complicate some other early Dahlonega issues. Strikes are typically average, with softness on the high points of Liberty's hair and on the eagle's neck feathers normal for the issue rather than a defect. Surfaces often show the warm olive-gold tone that came from the local alloy.

The mintmark sits below the eagle on the reverse, a small "D" in the same position used by the Denver Mint roughly seventy years later. The two are separated by date alone: any "D" half eagle from 1838 through 1861 is Dahlonega, since Denver did not strike gold until 1906. Authentication leans on standard diagnostics. The piece weighs 8.359 grams at .900 fine, and a coin off that target by more than a tenth of a gram should be set aside for closer review. Counterfeits exist but are most often crude struck copies that fail on weight, fabric, or surface texture; specialist references and certified comparison pieces are the safest reference points.

In the broader collecting landscape, the 1845-D ranks among the more obtainable Dahlonega half eagles, which is why mid-1840s dates often anchor a beginning Dahlonega set. Circulated examples in VF and XF turn up regularly at auction, while uncirculated coins are genuinely scarce. The Bass/Norweb specimen, considered the finest known, brought $66,000 in the 1987 Norweb sale, then a record for any Dahlonega gold coin. For background on the design and the full date range, see the Liberty Head Half Eagle series history.