1842-D $2.50 (1842-D Half Eagle) NGC MS61. This rare Southern branch mint 1842-D Half Eagle glows with subdued mint luster. Aside from some wispy marks and one or two nick, the surfaces are clean and pleasant. The strike is full on the obverse but shows some central weakness on the reverse. The remaining reverse details are strong and sharp, especially the eagles wings, the arrows, the olive branch, legends, and the dentils. Christian Gobrechts quarter eagle was produced without substantial modification from 1840 to 1907, the longest span in any United States coinage series.

It uses the Coronet design which shows Liberty facing left, her hair tied tightly in beads, except for two curls one down the back of her neck and the other on the side below her ear, with LIBERTY inscribed on the coronet. She is surrounded by thirteen stars, and the date is below the truncation. The reverse shows the heraldic eagle facing left holding arrows and olive branch it its talons. The inscription UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcs around it, interrupted by the wing tips, and the denomination 2 D. is below. The denomination is separated from the legend with dots. The weight remained the same, but the diameter was reduced from the previous issue to 18 millimeters.

Christian Gobrecht was the third Chief Engraver at Mint in Philadelphia. He was born in Hanover, Pennsylvania in 1785. His father, a German immigrant was a reverend. His mother, Elizabeth Sands was a descendent of the early settlers of Plymouth Colony. In 1818 Gobrecht married Mary Hewes. After an apprenticeship, he became an engraver of clockworks in Baltimore. Later, in Philadelphia, he joined a banknote engraving firm where he had an excellent job. He invented a machine that enabled one to convert a three-dimensional medal into an illustration. Understandably, Gobrecht was reluctant to join the Mint staff. In order to persuade him to leave the engraving firm, Mint Director Patterson convinced Chief Engraver William Kneass, incapacitated by a stroke, to give up a significant part of his salary so more money would be available to hire the new employee.

Gobrechts first work for the United States Mint was in 1826 when he made dies as an assistant to Kneass. When Kneass was unable to continue working because of his medical condition, Gobrecht did all the die and pattern work. He was Chief Engraver from 1840 until his death in 1844. Famous for his Liberty Seated dollar obverse, which was used for all denominations of silver coinage, he was responsible for also designing the Liberty Head motif that was first used on the gold eagle, and then on the half cent, the cent, and the gold quarter and half eagles.

The discovery of gold on Cherokee land in Georgia caused a large group of miners to come to the frontier town of Auraria, which is now Lumpkin County, Georgia. Its name derives from aurum, the Latin word for gold. Soon Dahlonega, which meant yellow money in Cherokee, would become the county seat. The miners need to convert oar and dust into bullion led to the establishment of private coiners, including the Bechtlers and Templeton Reid; however, because of a lack of standardization, there was pressure for a federal coinage to be created. The federal branch mint at Dahlonega was established to meet this need.

Modern D mint coins should not be confused with Dahlonega gold coins. Today a coin bearing the D mintmark was minted in Denver, which began production in 1906.

All 1842-D Half Eagle are rare because the coin had an original mintage of only 4,643. In its population report NGC shows 4 in MS61 with 1 better. At PCGS no mint state 1842-D quarter eagles have been certified.