1855-Da Medium D

The 1855 half eagle from the Dahlonega, Georgia branch mint was struck in two recognized mintmark varieties, and the Medium D is the scarcer of the pair. Both varieties share a single combined mintage of 22,432 pieces, a figure that places the date among the harder Dahlonega issues of the 1850s. Within that small total the Medium D is the less frequently encountered variety in surviving population reports, and its share of the original delivery has never been documented. Mid-1850s Dahlonega operations were running at reduced capacity compared with the mint's earlier years, and 1855 falls into the late period when production was contracting toward the eventual 1861 closure. Under current cataloging the 1855-D mintmark difference is treated as a size variation, though specialist work in recent years has reclassified some other Dahlonega "size" varieties as position variants on the working die.

The Coronet half eagle weighs 8.359 grams on a 21.6 mm planchet of 0.900 fine gold. Counterfeit risk is meaningful for any branch-mint Liberty Head gold, and added-mintmark deceptions, where a P-mint coin has a D punched in afterward, are the most common threat; weight outside roughly 8.30 to 8.40 grams or a mintmark that sits at the wrong angle relative to the eagle's tail feathers should be treated as a warning. Variety attribution is made with magnification at the mintmark, comparing the height and width of the D punch against reference photographs from PCGS CoinFacts or NGC VarietyPlus, since the difference between the Large and Medium D is subtle. Strike weakness on the eagle's neck feathers and central obverse hair is normal and should not be mistaken for wear.

Demand for the 1855-DA Medium D comes from Dahlonega completists working a date-and-mintmark set and from variety specialists building both recognized 1855-D punches. Most certified examples grade in the VF to AU range, with Mint State coins genuinely rare and commanding strong premiums when they appear at auction. Heritage and Stack's Bowers records show Medium D examples crossing the block at multiples of common-date Dahlonega half eagle prices when the variety is correctly attributed on the holder. The umbrella mintage already makes 1855-D scarce, and the Medium D designation adds another layer of difficulty for anyone pursuing the variety. See the Liberty Head Half Eagle series history.