1830 Templeton Reid Gold Pieces

About This Coin

Templeton Reid, a jeweler and watchmaker from Milledgeville, Georgia, established the first private gold mint in the United States when he began striking gold coins in July 1830 using native Georgia gold from the Dahlonega region. His 1830 gold pieces, struck in high-purity native Georgia gold (.942 fine) with reeded edges, represent the pioneering chapter in American territorial gold coinage, predating the more famous California private gold issues by nearly two decades. Reid produced coins in denominations of $2.50, $5, and $10, each bearing his name and the denomination, using gold panned from the streams and mined from the hills of the Georgia Gold Belt. The operation was short-lived, as newspaper accusations that his coins were underweight forced Reid to close his mint within months of opening, though modern analysis has shown his coins generally met or exceeded their stated gold content. Reid's 1830 Georgia gold pieces are among the rarest and most historically important pieces in American numismatics, with only a handful of confirmed survivors across all denominations. The Dahlonega gold region that supplied Reid's metal would later attract the attention of the federal government, leading to the establishment of the Dahlonega Mint in 1838. Reid himself would later relocate to California during the Gold Rush and resume private gold coining there in 1849, creating a second chapter in his remarkable minting career that bookended the entire era of American territorial gold production.