All 20,583 half eagles coined in Dahlonega in 1838 were struck by a single die pair. Most coins were distributed regionally and saw extensive circulation, and 1838-D half eagles in Fine and Very Fine grade are not unusual. Sylvia Gailey Head and Elizabeth W. Etheridge's The Neighborhood Mint: Dahlonega in the Age of Jackson reports that the first coins struck at Dahlonega were half eagles. The first press run of 80 coins was struck on April 17, 1838, as recorded in a letter from Mint Superintendent Dr. Joseph J. Singleton to Philadelphia Mint Director Robert M. Patterson on May 1, 1838. Lacking good leadership and technical skills, the Dahlonega Mint got off to a rough start. Important equipment took ages to reach the remote hills of north Georgia from Philadelphia, or it never arrived at all. Quarter eagles were not struck until 1839, and the new half eagle dies for 1839 were not received until April of that year. Though silver coinage was authorized by Congress to be struck in Dahlonega in 1840, the facility struck nothing but gold coins until its closure. Taken over by the Confederacy in 1861, the mint structure was left abandoned after the Civil War. In 1871, the building was given to the North Georgia Agricultural College. After the mint burned down in 1878, another structure was constructed on the foundation and now serves as an administration building for the University of North Georgia.

This issue garners interest from several different quarters. Type collectors seek it out as the only Dahlonega Mint Classic Head half eagle. Dahlonega specialists require examples to complete date runs, and those who pursue first year of issue coins cherish the 1838-D as the first half eagle of the Dahlonega Mint. Those groups compete for the small number of high grade 1838-D half eagles extant, and demand pressure is heightened by the propensity of Southern gold enthusiasts to collect multiple specimens.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the Summer 2022 Global Showcase Auction, where it realized $114,000.