Four Dollar Stella (1879-1880)

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Four Dollar Stella (1879-1880)

Four-Dollar Pieces or Stellas

The Latin Monetary Union was established in 1865 to provide for a standard gold coinage that would be exchangeable across borders. Though the USA never joined this organization during its 60 years of existence, Congress did take an interest in creating a gold issue that would be comparable in value to familiar European gold issues such as the French 20 francs and Italian 20 lire coins. In 1879-80 pattern coins were struck in gold and several base metals for a four-dollar piece that was approximately equal in value to these foreign pieces, but the idea was doomed from the start. Creating a coin that contained exactly four dollars in gold that would be suitable in domestic circulation rendered it of unequal value to the established foreign pieces, and no practical solution was found to this problem.

Two designs were created, the Flowing Hair Liberty attributed to Charles Barber and the Coiled Hair Liberty by George Morgan. These featured a common reverse dominated by a five-pointed star, and it from this device that the coins acquired the name Stella, Latin for star. The balance of the design consisted mostly of numerals and text defining the coins' metallic composition, this in an effort to sell the international concept.

NGC will attribute all Stellas at no additional fee beyond that of grading. The gold strikes will be attributed by their dates and designs alone, while the base metal strikes will include their Judd numbers from the standard reference on United States pattern and trial coins.