 The other candidate for the <unk> from that mint is the 1861 @-@ D , with an estimated mintage of 1 @,@ 000 and perhaps 45 to 60 known . Two pairs of dies were shipped from Philadelphia to Dahlonega on December 10 , 1860 ; they arrived on January 7 , 1861 , two weeks before Georgia voted to secede from the Union , as the American Civil War began . Under orders from Governor Joseph E. Brown , state militia secured the mint , and at some point , small quantities of dollars and half eagles were produced . Records of how many coins were struck and when have not survived . Since dies crack in time , and all the mints were supplied with them from Philadelphia , coining could not last , and in May 1861 , coins and supplies remaining at Dahlonega were turned over to the treasury of the Confederate States of America , which Georgia had by then joined . Gold coins with a face value of $ 6 were put aside for <unk> . Normally , they would have been sent to Philadelphia to await the following year 's meeting of the United States <unk> Commission , when they would be available for testing . Instead , these were sent to the initial Confederate capital of Montgomery , Alabama , though what was done with them there , and their ultimate fate , are unknown . The rarity of the 1861 @-@ D dollar , and the association with the Confederacy , make it especially prized . 
