Steve Herschbach Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 "In 1879, America's minister plenipotentiary to Austria, John Adam Kasson, successfully persuaded the Philadelphia Mint that the U.S. needed a four-dollar coin. The exact logic of the argument has been lost to time, though its thrust was that America needed a coin that would work as a form of international currency, and a gold coin that (roughly) measured the same weight as a French napoleon or a British sovereign would do the trick. The project was given the green light, and the coin, which features a giant star on one side, was minted in a limited run of two versions. One version depicted a female personification of Liberty with her hair up, the other with her hair down. But despite Lady Liberty's multiple coiffures, the coin was a flop. "People never fully got on board," said Paul Song, the director of coins and banknotes at Bonhams. "It was too much of a reach to say that the average citizen in 1880 was thinking about international trade. They just lost interest." So Congress refused to approve the coins' widespread release, the original strike of 425 coins was sold to various politicians at cost, and the mold was scrapped. Now, one of these 425 coins is headed to auction at Bonham's LA, estimated to sell for $50,000 to $60,000 on Sept. 6." Read the rest of the story at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-08-05/there-is-a-4-u-s-coin-and-it-s-now-worth-60-000 Stella (United States coin) - Wikipedia The Scandalous Stella - GovMint.com 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Would love to dig one of these up! Thanks for posting the story Steve. GL & HH, Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fredmason Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 dang, I never read about that...thanks steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Herschbach Posted August 5, 2016 Author Share Posted August 5, 2016 I never heard of a $4 gold coin until I saw the article. Of course California etc had all kinds of private tender coins but this one was almost official legal tender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatup Posted August 5, 2016 Share Posted August 5, 2016 Interesting coin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randy Lunn Posted August 6, 2016 Share Posted August 6, 2016 All new to me and fascinating. Thank you Steve! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now