LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 Signature Coin - Charlotte, NC #434  / 

2272

1879 $4 PR66 Cameo PCGS. The stella, or "golden star,"

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:550.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
1879 $4 PR66 Cameo PCGS. The stella, or golden star,
<B>1879 $4 PR66 Cameo PCGS.</B></I> The stella, or "golden star," is one of America's most curious coins. It is rare enough in its own right (condition aside) that it has been the dream of most collectors to own one, in any grade, even an off-metal experimental strike--a dream that mostly goes unfulfilled, and always has. The stella had its origins in controversy, and remains controversial. Yet its rarity remains undeniable, as does its desirability--and, to many eyes, its unusual beauty, born of European influence yet distinctly American.<BR> Although its story has been told many times, it remains intriguing. When the monetary laws of the fledgling nation were promulgated in the 1790s, it was Ben Franklin's national bird from which the gold coins took their name. The system of reckoning for the most precious of our money was founded on the concept of tens, named the eagle, half eagle, and quarter eagle. It remained pure for over half a century, until the flush of newly discovered gold in California created the need for an even larger coin, immediately named the double eagle, as well as a clamor for a precious gold dollar, exactly 1/10th the intrinsic value of the original eagle. Commercial demands on the West Coast seemed satisfied. Nothing more seemed needed, and in fact most gold coins went into hiding across the land during the frequent periods of financial unrest--including the depression that followed the War of 1812 and various bank panics. Yet, a novel denomination, the three dollar gold piece, which is sometimes called the Indian Princess, came into existence in 1854, reputedly to ease the purchase of postage stamps, then three cents apiece. But the three dollar was never truly popular and essentially died as a coinage type upon the outbreak of the Civil War, although it saw a brief resurgence in 1878. With all these kinds of gold coins, many of them out of circulation in hard times, why then should there ever have been a four dollar gold piece?<BR> The name proposed for this coin in 1879 was the fancy version of our other national emblem, used on our flag since the beginning, the star. On the "face" side the image was to be Liberty, but as she never had appeared before. Charles Barber styled the Flowing Hair type, and his rival at the mint, the British-American designer George Morgan, decided to coil Liberty's hair into a bun, not unlike the image that portrayed Queen Victoria on certain English coins at the time. Thus were born two versions. Specifics of the intrinsic content of the coin occupy the spot normally given to the obverse legend, digits and letters set among small stars (each five-sided, similar to the jumbo one that occupies the center of the reverse). Why these were placed on the coin at all, along with the inspiration for the coin itself, are central to understanding why the stella is such a rarity.<BR> After the Civil War, nothing but paper money and tokens circulated, as well as copper, white-metal, and bronze minor coins. Precious metals went into deep hiding. The Comstock Lode flooded silver back into the commercial system in the early 1870s, and there was suddenly so much silver that it fell in value in terms of gold. At the same time in Europe, bimetallism was giving way to the gold standard for the backing of paper currency. Thus, gold was again more precious, and silver less so. To use the tons of silver ore, the U.S. silver dollar was reborn, and the Trade dollar invented, but it was not enough. Representatives of Western mine interests pushed for an internationally tradable silver coinage, and all sorts of patterns for silver coins resulted from this in the late 1870s, many of them conceived on the metric system popular in Europe but unfamiliar to Americans.<BR> Rep. John Kasson wished to push the mint's "needs" even further, and proposed the idea of a gold coin containing silver as an increased alloy, a coin that might compete in Europe with such pieces as the French 20 franc gold coin. He and others urged the acceptance of so-called goloid metric dollars and even a new double eagle made of this special alloy, but it was the four dollar gold piece that might compete, they felt, most satisfactorily with the European equivalents. Kasson's approaches to Congress succeeded in orders given to the Philadelphia Mint's talented die-engravers, Barber and Morgan, to come up with ideas fitting to the metric concept. The results were unappreciated in their day, and what was essentially a brilliant idea (to foster international trade) quickly died after just a few "samples" were coined. Restrikes were made for collectors not long after the original patterns, but the stella remains one of the rarest of all U.S. gold issues. Superb examples are very rare, because when they first appeared they were casually handled, and even disliked. Some were used by congressmen in the barter that has been famously described many times. It is only the passage of time that reveals the genius of the idea, and the beauty of its few precious remnants in their (silvery) golden glory.<BR> This magnificent example shows deeply mirrored fields that contrast sharply against the thickly frosted devices. Each side shows pronounced reddish color, an unusual occurrence as most stellas are bright yellow-gold with their silver alloy. One of the finest Flowing Hair stellas known and a rare opportunity for the dedicated gold collector. Population: 8 in 66 Cameo, 2 finer (3/07).<BR><I>From The Palakika Collection.</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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