The Confederate Half-Dollar

First put into operation in 1835, the U.S. Mint in New Orleans was a key player in the United States’ financial security.   The port of New Orleans, at the mouth of the Mississippi at the Gulf of Mexico, was a powerhouse in domestic and international commerce.  Foreign silver and gold came in, U.S. silver and gold went out, and as such waiting for precious metals to get to a larger mint like Philadelphia was out of the question: the New Orleans mint produced U.S. coins in both silver and gold, assaying foreign monies received and re-minting that foreign gold and silver into new U.S. money.  As the San Francisco mint was just getting started, gold from the California Gold Rush made it to New Orleans and was coined.

It’s no wonder that, upon seceding from the Union in 1861, Louisiana took control of the New Orleans Mint and laid claim to the bouillon in the vaults.  This boon wasn’t squandered by the CSA: the state of Louisiana continued to operate the Mint, producing over 960,000 silver half-dollars and over 17,000 $20 gold double-eagles, or nearly a million dollars in coin, for the Confederate States using the existing Federal  coin dies.   Because these coins were in every sense identical to the Union coins, the Confederacy was able to spend them without risk of them being refused, but this similarity sadly means modern numismatists are also unable to identify coins minted by the CSA.

The Confederate States of America were eager to establish themselves as an independent nation, and one practical way was to begin minting CSA specie currency.   The New Orleans Mint was, of course, the ideal venue for such an undertaking: other southern mints were less capable, and were already mostly drained of their precious metals.   In early April 1861, Secretary of the Confederate Mint Christopher Memminger ordered a new design for a Confederate Half-Dollar, a 50¢ silver coin specifically minted for the Confederate States.  Several designs were submitted, and one was chosen with an reverse depicting a shield with seven stars, one for each of the initial Confederate states, surrounded by stalks of sugarcane and cotton.  The front, whether for recognizability or simplicity, would use the same obverse dies as the Union half-dollar.   Four proofs in silver were minted and examined as samples of the potential coinage of the CSA; one went to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, two went to local dignitaries, and one was retained by Chief Coiner Benjamin Taylor.

The New Orleans Mint, however, was shut down on 30 April 1861 due to an increasing scarcity in precious metals due to the war.  The Mint had exhausted its existing stores of bouillon minting coins using the Union designs, and the CSA’s attention had been diverted to more pressing concerns than a new coin.  The Mint was used for military purposes, the Mint employees relieved of their duties, and those four half-dollars were forgotten.

The Civil War ended, the New Orleans Mint was put back into service in 1879 specifically for minting new silver coins, and – of course – these unusual CSA half-dollars were discovered by coin collectors.  Chief Coiner Taylor was the main resource for the discovery of the coins, since he still owned his proof along with the original reverse die used to create the coins.  Two others surfaced not long after, and a few years later the fourth was discovered as a circulating coin, having been used to purchase something in New York state quite some time after the end of the Civil War.

Taylor sold his coin and die in 1879, and that purchases re-sold the obverse die to coin dealer J. Walter Scott and Company.   Scott’s plan for the die, with assistance of renowned numismatist David Proskey, was  simple.   He obtained 500 regular 1861 silver half-dollars, which had the identical front as the Confederate coin, and re-struck the coins with the Confederate reverse.   The first few were re-struck directly over the existing Federal back, which resulted in a bit of a double-exposure, the existing reverse faintly visible underneath the Confederate reverse.   Plan B was to remove the reverse from the coins, which made them slightly lighter than an original silver half-dollar, and then striking the Confederate reverse on the now-blank back.   This gives both styles of Scott’s restrikes a slightly different way to tell them apart from an actual Confederate half-dollar: the non-scraped coins weigh the same but have the ghosting of the original Union reverse, while the smoothed reverse ones weigh slightly less – and in both cases, the re-strike caused some flattening of the obverse image.

Scott also struck 500 in a white metal, with an 'advertisement' obverse. These are equally rare as the silver restrikes.

Scott obtained his 500 1861 coins from collectors, and as such most were fine specimens to begin with, but had varying degrees of wear and oxidation which affected how the coin looked after the re-striking.  Scott, being a coin dealer, was no fool:  he kept his re-strike project as a very limited run, which increased the value of the coins despite not being originals, and when he was done Scott had the die defaced to prevent any new coins being produced.  These Scott’s Re-Strikes are worth thousands of dollars today on the collectible market on their own merits.

Unlike other rare oddball coins, the Confederate Half-Dollar is remarkably well-documented, and it is surprising that all of the original proofs are accounted for, as well as the original dies used to make the coins.   The die and one of the four original proofs resides in the collection of the American Numismatic Society, while the other three are in private collections; surprisingly, none are in the Smithsonian’s extensive numismatic collection.  The rarity of the originals shouldn’t discourage collectors, provided you have deep pockets: the Scott Restrikes are common enough that they appear at auction somewhat regularly, giving numismatists the opportunity to own one of the few examples of the coinage of the CSA.