1879 $4 Flowing Hair, CAM PR (PCGS#88057)
The August 2010 Boston Rarities Sale
- 拍卖行
- Bowers & Merena
- 批号
- 1636
- 等级
- PR66
- 价格
- 1,128,613
- 详细说明
- 1879 Four-Dollar Gold Stella. Flowing Hair. Judd-1635, Pollock-1833. Rarity-3. Proof-66 Cameo (NGC). The obverse features the Charles Edward Barber Flowing Hair design with a left-facing head of Liberty as the focal device. Liberty is wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY, and her hair is long and flowing. The border is inscribed * 6 * G * .3 * S * .7 * C * 7 * G * R * A * M * S * and the date 1879 is below. On the reverse, a five-pointed star, or stella, is inscribed ONE STELLA / 400 CENTS. In the field immediately surrounding the star are the Latin inscriptions E PLURIBUS UNUM and DEO EST GLORIA. The legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is above and another expression of the value, FOUR DOL., is below. Struck in gold (probably standard alloy of 90% gold, 10% copper) with a reeded edge.<br /> Although technically a pattern, the Four-Dollar Stella has long been collected as part of the regular issue United States gold series. So important and popular is this denomination, in fact, that it is ranked 28th in the book <em>100 Greatest U.S. Coins </em>by Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth (first edition, 2003). The Stella is a proposed international coinage denomination that, had it been struck in a metric alloy, would also have provided an outlet for some of the silver that was flowing so freely from the Comstock Lode and other domestic sources during the later decades of the 19th century. In the end, however, Congress failed to authorize this denomination for regular issue production, leaving today's collectors with only the surviving patterns to add to their gold type sets. Most such pieces are restrikes of the 1879 Flowing Hair type that were produced in 1880 to provide Congressional leaders and other interested parties with examples of this proposed type.<br /> This is an evenly colored, light-orange specimen with marked cameo contrast between the fields and devices. A few faint striations (as struck) are noted for the upper portion
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