THE DAHLONEGA MINT
When modern collectors see a coin with the “D” mintmark, they naturally assume that it was struck at the Denver Mint. This was not always true, however, as before the year 1862, this mintmark meant something quite different. Dahlonega, in northern Georgia, began striking gold coins in April 1838 and continued to do so until the work was ended by the Civil War. The story of this little-known mint begins in 1830.
A skilled Georgia gunsmith named Templeton Reid decided to open a small private mint with which to strike gold coins. Gold had been discovered in Lumpkin County about this time, and Reid felt that he could earn a respectable living by providing this service to the miners. Unfortunately, his coins proved of variable fineness and his operation soon ground to a halt.
The small spark provided by Reid did influence others in Georgia and North Carolina, where gold had been found as early as 1804, to petition Congress for their own mint. In one of those odd political compromises that created more problems than it solved, not only did Dahlonega get a mint but so did New Orleans, La., and Charlotte, N.C. Mint Director Samuel Moore, in far-off Philadelphia, had lobbied strongly against the 1835 law but had lost out to regional pride and pork-barrel politics.
Moore, in fact, was so angry about the new branch mints that this strongly influenced his decision to resign a few weeks later, in the summer of 1835. His replacement was Dr. Robert M. Patterson, to whom fell the unenviable task of organizing and equipping the three new institutions. All, and especially Dahlonega, were to prove difficult and time-consuming.
The first step was to appoint a commissioner, and for Dahlonega Colonel Ignatius M. Few got the nod through his political connections in Washington. Few lived some distance away and rarely visited the building site. If he had done so, he would have discovered that the architect had specified brick for an area that seldom used it in construction.
By early 1837, matters were far enough advanced that President Andrew Jackson appointed Dr. Joseph J. Singleton as the first superintendent of this branch mint. Singleton was a typical political appointee but the other two officers – Joseph Farnum, assayer, and David Mason, coiner – were chosen by Director Patterson on a strictly merit basis.
The troubles at this mint started early. By the fall of 1837, it was noticed that the building had severe structural problems. These were so serious that Franklin Peale was sent by Patterson to straighten out the troubles, which included basement walls that had fallen down only a few weeks after being erected. The
contractor had apparently advertised for bungling workmen to do the roof work because it proved to be in even worse shape than the basement.
Despite ongoing problems, Singleton formally opened the mint for business on Feb. 12, 1838. In the first year alone, more than $140,000 worth of gold bullion was deposited for coinage, which began on April 17 of that year. Only half eagles were coined in 1838, but in later years quarter eagles and gold dollars were struck on a regular basis. Threedollar gold pieces were struck in only one year, 1854.
Even before coinage began, however, the officers were feuding among themselves. One month before coinage began, Farnum and Mason were no longer on speaking terms and both carried tales to the superintendent (Singleton) about the other. Within three months, this dispute had been patched up and now they jointly attacked Singleton in numerous letters to Mint Director Patterson in Philadelphia. Singleton struck back by spreading the rumor that both men would be fired for incompetence. It must have been a jolly group of officers at this point.
Although there was a temporary truce in the late fall of 1838, the feud resumed full force in 1839 when a local citizen made formal charges of incompetence against Singleton to the Treasury Department. The superintendent narrowly escaped removal from office but with no thanks to Farnum and Mason, who were more than happy to join in the attack on the superintendent.
One of the oddities of branch mint operations was the requirement that, before each coinage, the coiner had to send a sliver of metal from each melt of gold so that it could be assayed in Philadelphia. Once that was done, and accepted, Patterson would inform Singleton by return mail that coinage could proceed.
With such a system in effect, something was bound to go wrong, and it did. In the summer of 1838, a local postmaster got wind of what was contained in the envelopes and helped himself to the contents, being careful to destroy the letter as well. Eventually the light-fingered roadblock was caught and sent to prison.
During 1839, the Mint also began to coin quarter eagles and for some years, until 1849, only the two denominations were made at Dahlonega. In general, quarter eagles from this mint are the more difficult to find while the half eagles are less of a problem.
Although the mint workmen became more proficient with each passing day, the same could not be said for the officers. Coiner David Mason fired his chief assistant in May 1839 on trumped-up charges of incompetence and then proceeded to hire his own son. Mason asked Assayer Farnum to sign a statement that the fired workman, Thomas, was incompetent but Farnum also signed another petition, from Thomas’ fellow workmen, saying that he had been unfairly treated. Thomas remained fired, however.
In August 1839, with the Mason affair barely settled, Singleton was the subject of another set of formal charges, this time made by local postmaster G.K. Chesterton. The superintendent was now accused of swindling certain contractors by paying them in depreciated paper currency and not gold or silver. He was also accused of collusion in rigging bids.
Director Patterson was asked to investigate and had the good luck to interview Joseph Farnum, who was then visiting Philadelphia on leave. Farnum told the director that the charges were the result of personal dislike and not true. Singleton also denied the charges and the affair was allowed to die without any action being taken except for Singleton being ordered to keep his fiscal accounts in better order.
The annual feuding resumed in 1840 but with an added twist. Each of the three officers (Singleton, Farnum and Mason) wrote angry denunciations about the other two to Patterson. Both Patterson and the Treasury Department discussed the situation and President Martin Van Buren then fired Singleton, hiring Paul Rossignol in his place. Singleton tried to get Rossignol removed but without success.
As stories are sometimes printed about slaves being used in the branch mints, it is worth noting that this never occurred at Dahlonega. On some occasions, contractors used slaves even though this practice was frowned upon
by the federal government.
Superintendent Paul Rossignol survived the attack by his predecessor Singleton, but there were others waiting in the wings and Rossignol was in turn removed from office in May 1843. His replacement was James F. Cooper. So far as is known, Rossignol was a man of integrity so it must be assumed that his removal was connected in some way with political infighting.
One of the key players in the earlier feuds, Joseph Farnum, resigned his post in May 1843 and was replaced by Isaac L. Todd. There were no further changes through 1847, but it is known that Joseph Singleton was still trying to get his old post back. Coiner Mason wrote Director Patterson in 1845 that Cooper deserved to keep his post because he had worked hard for the election of James K. Polk in the presidential election of 1844.
The small number of quarter eagles struck at Dahlonega would have been smaller had the officers had their way. On several occasions, Patterson ordered this mint to coin additional quarter eagles despite the fact that depositors simply did not want them in exchange for their bullion.
It is interesting to note that there was one apartment in the mint structure, reserved for the superintendent as one of the perks of office. For a short time, Coiner Mason and his family were able to occupy the apartment but were forcibly evicted in 1846 by Superintendent Cooper.
From only $140,000 in gold deposits during 1838, this amount climbed to about $570,000 in 1843. After that, however, a gradual decline set in, and by the end of the decade less than $300,000 in gold was brought to the mint annually. It was not a good omen for the future.
In some ways the California gold rush was an important factor in helping to save the Dahlonega Mint. While many of the Georgia miners went to California, they also returned with considerable quantities of gold dust. This gold was deposited at the Dahlonega Mint, which accounts for the increased coinage there after 1849. In 1851, for example, California gold made up $214,000 of the $369,000 total deposits. Much of this flow was shut off after 1854, when the San Francisco Mint began operations.
There was so little bullion at times that one superintendent actually asked Philadelphia Mint officials to send some gold for this branch to coin! No one seemed to catch the irony of the request. There was little point in a mint at Dahlonega if bullion had to be sent from elsewhere.
Oddly enough, the gold dollar also helped to save the Southern mints at Charlotte and Dahlonega in 1849. One of the North Carolina congressmen put a bill through Congress authorizing this denomination. He believed, and rightfully so, that the available gold bullion would go further if struck into smaller coins. After 1852, however, there was less public interest in the gold dollar.
In 1849, Superintendent Cooper was replaced by Anderson W. Redding in a typical political change for the era. Just before Redding arrived, Cooper wrote a letter to Patterson, part of which is worth repeating: “As you have doubtless seen,
a vacancy has been created in the office of Superintendent by a process familiar to politicians, other than death or resignation – No mention is made of my removal, but another officer is appointed, and as I cannot suppose that two are to occupy the station, it is not a strained presumption to infer that I am to give way.”
In 1853, Redding was replaced by Julius Patton, who was to serve as superintendent until late 1860. Redding seems to have been a bit careless in keeping his accounts so the change might not have been entirely political, although the presidential election of 1852 would certainly have played a part.
The most interesting coin for this period is the $3 gold piece. Only 1,120 specimens were struck at Dahlonega in July 1854. Today this coin is one of the great rarities of the gold series and provokes spirited bidding whenever it appears at public auction.
The 1854 $3 gold coinage came during the last year in which there were strong deposits of gold at this mint, some $280,000 worth. Later years would each be more depressing than the last. In 1854, returning miners brought more than $200,000 in California bullion to the mint but less than $20,000 in all from this source for 1857 through 1861. So little bullion arrived during the final years, just before the Civil War, that it could have been coined in a few days by the Philadelphia Mint. The handwriting was clearly on the wall.
In a dying gasp, bullion brought by miners returning from the Pike’s Peak gold rush of 1859 kept the mint barely going in its final years. The $60,000 worth of gold deposited from that region was like rain from heaven during a drought. In October 1860, George Kellogg became the last superintendent of this mint, serving until its demise in 1861.
Very little is known at present about Dahlonega coinage in 1861. There were 1,597 half eagles made in January and February. In early March, Kellogg asked for funds to pay the workmen. Mint Director James Ross Snowden in Philadelphia approved the request, but it was denied by Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase in a letter of March 22: “Your letter of the 19th instant enclosing a requisition of the superintendent of the branch Mint at Dahlonega for salaries of the current quarter is received. Notwithstanding in this request is approved by you, the department before issuing a warrant … must be fully satisfied that the branch Mint in question is legally conducted under the authority of the United States of which there are doubts.”
The governor of Georgia seized the Dahlonega Mint in April 1861 and after that time no reports of any kind were sent to the parent mint in Philadelphia. It is known, however, that gold dollars and half eagles were coined under the Confederacy, all in small amounts.
During the Civil War, the building was used by the Confederate government for various purposes but at war’s end in 1865 was recovered by Union forces. Later donated to an agricultural college, the structure burned to the ground in December 1878. It was the end of a colorful time and one that provides modernday numismatists with many fine and rare gold coins for their collections.