The gold dollar continued to be produced in the late 1850s, though mintages declined from the figures of two million or more each year between 1850 and 1854.
 Only about 51,000 gold dollars were produced in 1860, with over two-thirds of that figure at Philadelphia, just under a third at San Francisco, and 1,566 at Dahlonega.
 Roughly a hundred are known of the last, creating one of the great rarities from Dahlonega in the series.

The other candidate for the rarest 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 total face value of $6 were put aside for assay.
 Normally, they would have been sent to Philadelphia to await the following year's meeting of the United States Assay 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.

Dahlonega, like the other two branch mints in the South, closed its doors after the 1861 strikings.
 It and the Charlotte facility never reopened; the New Orleans Mint again struck coins from 1879 to 1909, but did not strike gold dollars again.
 After 1861, the only issuance of gold dollars outside Philadelphia was at San Francisco, in 1870.

The outbreak of the Civil War shook public confidence in the Union, and citizens began hoarding specie, gold and silver coins.
 In late December 1861, banks and then the federal Treasury stopped paying out gold at face value.
 By mid-1862, all federal coins, even the base metal cent, had vanished from commerce in much of the country.
 The exception was the Far West, where for the most part, only gold and silver were acceptable currencies, and paper money traded at a discount.
 In the rest of the nation, gold and silver coins could be purchased from banks, exchange agents, and from the Treasury for a premium in the new greenbacks the government began to issue to fill the gap in commerce and finance the war.
The gold dollar continued to be produced in the late 1850s, though mintages declined from the figures of two million or more each year between 1850 and 1854.  Only about 51,000 gold dollars were produced in 1860, with over two-thirds of that figure at Philadelphia, just under a third at San Francisco, and 1,566 at Dahlonega.  Roughly a hundred are known of the last, creating one of the great rarities from Dahlonega in the series.
The other candidate for the rarest 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 total face value of $6 were put aside for assay.  Normally, they would have been sent to Philadelphia to await the following year's meeting of the United States Assay 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.
Dahlonega, like the other two branch mints in the South, closed its doors after the 1861 strikings.  It and the Charlotte facility never reopened; the New Orleans Mint again struck coins from 1879 to 1909, but did not strike gold dollars again.  After 1861, the only issuance of gold dollars outside Philadelphia was at San Francisco, in 1870.
The outbreak of the Civil War shook public confidence in the Union, and citizens began hoarding specie, gold and silver coins.  In late December 1861, banks and then the federal Treasury stopped paying out gold at face value.  By mid-1862, all federal coins, even the base metal cent, had vanished from commerce in much of the country.  The exception was the Far West, where for the most part, only gold and silver were acceptable currencies, and paper money traded at a discount.  In the rest of the nation, gold and silver coins could be purchased from banks, exchange agents, and from the Treasury for a premium in the new greenbacks the government began to issue to fill the gap in commerce and finance the war.
Gold dollar