In December 1860, Southern delegates to the Secession Convention laid plans for the formation of the Confederate States of America. Pursuant to these plans, the United States Mint at Dahlonega, Georgia was seized by rebel forces on April 8, 1861 (the other Southern branch mints in New Orleans, Louisiana and Charlotte, North Carolina were seized on February 28 and April 20, respectively). Prior to that date, some 1,597 Half-Eagles were struck under the United States flag. Following the Confederate seizure, an unknown, but undoubtedly very small mintage of Half-Eagles was struck by Confederate mint employees from the existing U.S. coinage dies. In his Encyclopedia (page 529), Breen notes some $13,345 in gold bullion was confiscated by the rebels in Dahlonega; he notes that this much bullion would approximate to 1,000 Gold Dollars and 2,469 Half-Eagles. On April 9, 1865, the Confederate Treasury shipped all its existing records from their beleagured capital city of Richmond, Virginia. While most of the Confederate Treasury records were recovered by the victorious Union forces, the records of the Dahlonega Mint were never found. Regarding the provenance of the coins, there is no tried-and-true test to determine which were struck by "Uncle Sam," and which by "Johnnie Reb".