1861-O Seated 50C (1861-O Half Dollar) ANACS G4. This New Orleans Mint Seated 1861-O Half Dollar has medium, brown-beige toning that is darker at the rims. The reverse is a mixture of light and dark toning, with the eagle and the right and top fields lighter than the rest. Aside from LIBERTY, all numbers and letters show on both sides of the coin, in keeping with the grade.

During the Civil War the New Orleans Mint was held by the Confederacy and used to produce its coinage. It was the only mint to produce uniquely identifiable Confederate coinage, the 1861 half dollar with Confederate reverse and the copper-nickel cent of the same year.

In 1862 the New Orleans Mint was captured by United States Marines commanded by Commodore David Farragut and closed as a minting facility. The mint reopened as an assay office in 1876. Three years later federal coinage resumed. The New Orleans Mint was the only branch mint in the South to continue coinage after the Civil War.