1845-Da

The 1845-D quarter eagle reports a Dahlonega mintage of 19,460 pieces, a figure modestly above the previous year's branch output and one of the better-attested production runs from the north Georgia facility's first decade. Working dies arrived from Philadelphia with the D mintmark already punched below the eagle on the reverse, sitting in the standard position above the fraction line. The 1845 production at Dahlonega shows the typical signatures of the branch's tooling and planchet preparation: granular surfaces from imperfect annealing, recurring weakness on the obverse stars and Liberty's hair curls, and reverse striking softness that frequently obscures full feather detail on the eagle's wings and tail. The D punch font for this year is the standard flat-topped serifed letter that authenticators have catalogued across the 1840s production sequence, with consistent positioning relative to the surrounding devices.

Authentication centers on the D mintmark first and the planchet second. A genuine 1845-D mintmark shows the serifed flat-topped D with crisp punch impression, vertical left side joining cleanly to upper and lower serifs, and a curved right that meets both serifs without breaks. Counterfeit operators have repeatedly attempted to add D mintmarks to common Philadelphia 1845 host coins, and the giveaways are the same as on other Dahlonega dates: tooling marks in the surrounding field, soft mintmark edges that lack a punched-in appearance, incorrect spacing relative to the eagle's tail feathers and the fraction below, or a flat field around the mintmark where the host coin's original surface has been disturbed during the addition. The genuine planchet weighs 4.18 grams at 18 millimeters with reeded edge and tests to specific gravity near 17.2 on the 90-percent gold alloy.

Survivor estimates run between 200 and 300 pieces across all grades, with most concentrated in VF and EF and About Uncirculated examples decidedly scarce. Mint State pieces are rare enough that any certified MS coin draws sustained collector attention at major sales. Doug Winter notes that this date is one of the more available Dahlonega quarter eagles in lower circulated grades but becomes genuinely difficult once the search shifts to AU58 or finer with original surfaces intact. Pricing reflects the steep grade-by-grade scarcity gradient typical of branch-mint issues. See the full Liberty Head Quarter Eagle series history.