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Sale 42
Pre-Long Beach Coin and Currency Auction
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Lot 3275 |
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1879 $4 Gold. Flowing hair. NGC graded Proof 65 Cameo. NGC #1847590-001. Only 700 Proofs struck. Lovely light golden toning. Minor planchet flake at 7:00 near FO of FOUR on the reverse, as made. From Liberty's long flowing hair to the sharp Stella on the reverse a gorgeous gem that has impressive mint brilliance over immaculate, glittering, almost hypnotizing surfaces. There are no copper spots. And a meticulous strike on every device is this coin's greatest triumph, a must for any $4 gold piece; this coin, unlike those that don't quite make the "full" grade at centers, is extra crisp, twice as sharp as an average specimen. Even the tiny dot pattern that outlines the star is plainly visible. For that reason, the numerical condition is exact.
An estimated 700 Proof 1879 Flowing Hair $4 Stellas officially made. This lovely Gem Proof 65 is one of a comparatively few undamaged survivors; several dozen were worn as jewelry by Washington DC madams; more than half the rest were cleaned, mishandled, kept as pocket pieces, or otherwise impaired. Struck before the dies rusted. During the past two decades, from five to over a dozen specimens have sold each year, but many were impaired, others are reappearances of the same coins.
The four dollar gold piece, known as the "Stella," is one of the most prestigious and sought-after of all United States gold rarities. The derivation of the term Stella is one that, while often repeated in numismatic circles, is not completely understood by many. When gold coins were first struck in the Mint in 1795, they were based on a unit of value called the 'eagle.' The eagle was equal in value to ten dollars and it also had a factual design of an eagle on one side. If the eagle is worth ten dollars, it would follow that a half eagle would be worth half that amount, a quarter eagle two and a half dollars, and so on.
The four dollar gold piece, when it came along in 1879-80 (the new denomination was proposed by John Kasson, an inveterate "doer" politician, as an international metric coin), was also a new base unit for gold coins, and called a Stella. Similar to the eagle on other gold coins denominated on the ten dollar gold standard, the statutory "Stella" has a star on the reverse, since 'Stella' means star in Latin. Charles E. Barber, the Philadelphia Mint's chief engraver, engraved the dies for the Flowing Hair Stella in 1879, although he modified a design earlier done by his father, William Barber, from the previous year (the father died in August of 1879).
With that as setting, this historic four-dollar gold piece was anticipated to solve a couple of vexing problems faced by the United States system of better items-metallic coinage in the 1870s. The first was to make a coin whose "intrinsic measure and value" as part of the design was sufficient to make it useful as an international trade coin. The other, as a bone tossed to the silver "Interests" as they were termed, was to strike these in an alloy that used either 4% silver or 10% silver, thereby increasing sales of this semi-precious metal by the silver mining states. (John Kasson's former chairmanship of the Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures from 1863 to 1867 gave him experience in these matters.) For all its intended merits, the Stella project was in next to no time abandoned. And that, as they say, is the rest of the story! Pop 12; 28 finer, 19 in 66, 7 in 67, 2 in 67 star (PCGS # 88057) .
Estimated Value $180,000 - 190,000.
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