The Conf. Half Dollar was one of only four struck at the New Orleans Mint in the short time it was operated by Conf. forces. This coin is silver plated, not solid silver! At the beginning of the American Civ. War, each of the southern states, as they seceded from the Union, seized the properties of the Federal Government that was within their borders. On February 28, 1861 the State of Louisiana took the New Orleans mint "into trust," and began to operate the facility under its authority. In April the Conf. Government took control of the mint from Louisiana and operated it until Conf. authorities decided to close the facility on April 30. During that time the Rebels produced 2.2 million half dollars and almost 13 thousand double eagles ($20 gold pieces). Mint personnel struck all of these coins using standard Union dies. There were very few qualified die sinkers in the South, and prior to the war all of the dies for the branch mints had been produced at the Philadelphia Mint. Therefore southern officials had no choice but to use the Union dies because no other tools were available to them. During April of 1861, Conf. Treasury Secretary, Christopher Memminger, attempted to start a Conf. coinage. He asked a local die maker, A. H. M. Patterson, to make a die for a half dollar. Patterson's design featured a shield, similar to the Union design, with seven stars in the field at the top and seven vertical stripes at the bottom. The stars and stripes stood for the seven southern states that had seceded from the Union and joined the Conf. at that time. Ultimately 11 states would join the rebellion. The shield was topped by a liberty cap mounted on a pole and was flanked by a branch of cotton on the left side and a wheat stalk on the right. The central design was partially surrounded by the legend, "Conf. States of America," and the denomination, "Half Dollar," at the bottom. Patterson's die, which was officially designated as the Conf. obverse, was paired with a standard Liberty Seated Union obverse die dated 1861. Conrad Schmidt, who was the foreman of the coining room, polished both dies to a Proof finish and struck four half dollars on a screw press. Although the coins were struck as Proofs, the obverse die was cracked from the rim to the bridge of Ms. Liberty's nose. The four coins were presented to (1) Dr. B. F. Taylor who was the Chief Coiner at the New Orleans mint, (2) Dr. E. Ames, (3) Professor Biddle from Tulane University and (4) Conf. Treasury Secretary, Christopher Memminger, who turned his coin over to Conf. President, Jefferson Davis. No further efforts were made to expand the scope of the Conf. coinage beyond these four pieces in the South although Robert Lovett, who was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania die sinker may have been commissioned to produce a Conf. cent. After the war Dr. Taylor, who had both the die and an example of the coin, did not disclose what he had for over a decade. He feared that he might be prosecuted as a traitor for supervising the production of a Rebel coinage. Finally in 1879 he broke the story in an issue of the New Orleans Picayune newspaper. Ebenezer Locke Mason, who was a well known 19th century coin dealer, contacted Dr. Taylor and purchased the coin and the die from him. Mason resold the die to the J. W. Scott of New York, who was a prominent stamp and coin dealer. At the time that Scott purchased the Conf. half dollar die, it was not in good condition. The die had rusted, and there was a small clip on the edge above the letters "ER" in "AMERICA." With the help of another coin dealer, David Proskey, Scott polished the die to remove most of the rust and devised a plan to put it to profitable use. Fearing that the die would fail if it was pushed too hard, Scott had 500 tokens struck in white metal. The obverse of these pieces featured a brief history of the Conf. half dollar: "4 ORIGINALS STRUCK BY ORDER OF THE C.S.A. IN NEW ORLEANS 1861. ******* REV. SAME AS U.S. (FROM ORIGINAL DIE : SCOTT")