1879 $4 PR64 Cameo PCGS....

 

1879 $4 PR64 Cameo PCGS. Judd-1635, R.3. All of the four gold stella variants are considered among the most desirable U.S. coins. The 1879 Flowing Hair, 1879 Coiled Hair, 1880 Flowing Hair, and 1880 Coiled Hair are all collectively listed as Number 28 of the Top 100 in Jeff Garrett and Ron Guth's 100 Greatest U.S. Coins, published in 2005.
While the idea of the stella was to provide one metric denomination that substituted for a number of international currencies of various nations, in many ways the increasingly powerful modern European Union and its currency, the euro, is the converse of that idea: Replace a number of nations' currencies with one that is accepted without money-changing or currency fluctuations across many borders of the "Eurozone." Anyone who traveled internationally before the introduction of the euro can speak from experience of the difficulties of ending up a trip to several different European countries. One was left with a pocketful of lire, drachmai, Swiss and French francs, marks, pounds, guilder, and other small-denomination coins and bills.
While today that situation is much improved, there are several notable holdouts to joining the European Union--at least insofar as adopting the euro is concerned. Those standouts include most notably the United Kingdom, still tied to the pound sterling, and Switzerland, whose long history of neutrality will likely forever keep it out of the EU and bound to the Swiss franc.
Less well known are the numerous other nations that have joined the European Union but have failed to adopt the euro as their currency. They include Bulgaria (currency: lev), Czech Republic (koruna), Denmark (krone), Estonia (kroon), Hungary (forint), Latvia (lats), Lithuania (litas), Poland (zloty), Romania (leu), Slovakia (koruna), and Sweden (krona).
Although the mintage figure for the 1879 Flowing Hair stella is unknown, estimates range from a low of 425 pieces to 725 or more--an extremely high number for what was, strictly speaking, a pattern issue. The 1879 Flowing Hair stellas were popular with members of Congress, some of whom were reputed to have given them to their mistresses--and it is true that many survivors today are circulated, and show signs of former use in jewelry.
The present cataloger (GH) also has anecdotal evidence of a circulating stella. After I started to collect coins as a teen in the 1960s, my father told me about my grandfather, who was the proprietor of a saloon on McKinney Avenue in Dallas, Shorn's Café, in the 1880s and 1890s. Dallas was at that time the railhead for cattle drives that started up north in the Great Plains--Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas. The cowpokes would get paid only after the cattle were loaded up onto freight cars heading east or west. Often the cowboys would come into the saloon--dry as a bone after months on the trail--with only their "lucky coin" in their pocket, which they would spend to get a drink of whiskey.
My grandfather always kept those unusual coins, in a cigar box under the counter. When I asked my dad if he could remember what coins were in the box, he thought for a moment and said, "The only coins that I remember were a three dollar gold piece and a four dollar gold piece." Needless to say, even at that tender age, I knew how important those coins were if they turned out to be as advertised. This was no make-believe fabrication--not from a man who did not know the difference in a Jefferson nickel and a Morgan dollar. After inquiring further, I discovered that granddad's coin collection had gone to my eldest aunt. Unfortunately, a babysitter "friend of the family" had apparently made off with the collection a few months earlier; my aunt didn't have the heart to call the police about her. I still believe, though, that the coins were indeed three and four dollar gold pieces. The timing works out perfectly, and there are many scenarios where such pieces could have ended up in cowhands' pockets in the 1880s.
This wonderful specimen, as apparently on all stellas seen, shows light planchet striations on the face of Liberty, on the reverse star highpoints, and in the fields. Those striae, all nearly vertical, are caused by unstruck areas from thinner-than-normal planchet stock. A small, undistracting planchet lamination appears above the R in GLORIA on the reverse. But the appeal of the piece is undeniable, with glorious luster and pretty peach-gold color on the surfaces, which show considerable field-device contrast. Under a loupe some tiny contact marks in the fields appear that probably limited an even finer grade, but the piece has much to commend itself. Positively not the example from the cigar box! Population: 18 in 64 Cameo, 18 finer (6/08).(Registry values: P1) (#88057)

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