1879 $4 PR61 Cameo NGC....

 

1879 $4 PR61 Cameo NGC. Judd-1635, R.3. In his 1988 Encyclopedia, Walter Breen sardonically attacked the ideas that brought about the stellas and other "metric" patterns of the late 1860s through the early 1880s. He described an "alleged need for international trade coins" and called three members of the House of Representatives (Richard P. Bland, John Adam Kasson, and William Darrah Kelley) an "unholy trinity" dedicated to foisting unwanted proposals for ill-conceived cross-border currencies on Congress and the Mint. As is often the case with Breen's work, however, there is more to the story.
In the European Commission brochure "One Currency for One Europe: The Road to the Euro," a sidebar highlights a number of thematic predecessors to the modern economic union that dominates most of continental Europe:

Economic integration between independent states is not new. The Latin monetary union, comprising France, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Greece, existed from 1865 until 1927. The Scandinavian monetary union of Sweden, Denmark and Norway lasted from 1873 until 1924. The German Zollverein is perhaps one of the most successful examples, beginning with a customs union between German principalities in 1834 and producing a central bank, the Reichsbank, and a single currency, the Reichsmark, in 1875.

By the time the proposal for the stella advanced to the pattern-striking stage in 1879, the Latin Monetary Union had added Spain as a member, the Sweden-Denmark alliance had added Sweden's autonomous political union partner Norway, and the evolution of the German Empire under the leadership of Prussia and its diplomats added political reinforcement to the economic alignment of the previously independent participants in the Zollverein.
The United States experienced a degree of influence from these monetary unions, the Latin in particular; after the Mint Act of 1873, the adjustment of the minor silver denominations to a metric standard meant that the weight of pure silver in a dollar's worth of American minor silver (though notably not a silver dollar or Trade dollar) was equivalent to the silver weight of five Belgian francs or Italian lire. While certain other actions by the United States could be interpreted differently by viewing them through the lens of European monetary unions, these are likely coincidental. The twenty cent piece, though it would have made a good analogue to the silver "unit" coinage of the Latin Monetary Union nations, was sponsored by Nevada Senator John Percival Jones, who was more concerned with mine owners' interests than international commerce (though the two may have had plenty in common). In addition, the alignment of the American metric standard with the Latin Monetary Union was aided by their already close proximity; as has been noted elsewhere in numismatic literature, the change in weight of the minor silver pieces of the United States in 1873 was so small that properly proportioned planchets of the previous standard were within tolerance for the new benchmarks.
Though the stella as an international coinage concept proved unpalatable to Congress, its manifestation as a golden pattern was a different matter, and the 1879-dated Flowing Hair stellas (most of which were actually minted the following year) were immensely popular with government officials. As a result, the 1879 Flowing Hair stella is one of the most heavily minted American patterns, though unceasing demand for the issue has made the available supply seem tiny by comparison. This mildly contrasted honey-gold and green-gold piece shows a number of faint hairlines in the fields and a pinscratch that runs near-vertically through the left obverse field, but it offers strong overall eye appeal nonetheless. (Registry values: P1) (#88057)

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