The magnetic reconnection that occurs during the nonlinear development of the coalescence instability is considered. The structure of the reconnection region at the time of maximum current as a function of the resistivity &eegr; is analyzed in detail using a compressible magnetohydrodynamic fluid code. It is shown that the numerical results concur remarkably well with a simple scaling analysis which predicts the dependence of the reconnection region structure on &eegr;. It is argued that the flow topology is crucial in maintaining the ‘‘fast’’ reconnection rate. The results indicate a flux pileup solution in which the flux annihilation rate is approximately independent of &eegr;, whereas the Ohmic dissipation rate scales as &eegr;−1/3. The possibility that these scalings break down at lower values of &eegr; is discussed.