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The Collectors' Auction 2008
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(About The Images)

1880 $4 Flowing Hair Stella, Judd-1657, Pollock-1857, R-6., NGC PF-66 Eliasberg.

Lot Title:	1880 $4 Flowing Hair Stella, Judd-1657, Pollock-1857, R-6., NGC PF-66 Eliasberg.
Description:	France, as part of their continuing effort to arrest declining global political fortunes and monetary prestige, had already convinced Belgium to adopt the French franc in 1830, and Switzerland embraced the standard in 1848, joined also by Italy in 1861. By a convention dated December 23, 1865, the agreement was formalized when the union of the four European powers agreed to abide their national currencies by a standard of 4.5 grams of silver to 0.290322 grams of gold, a fixed ratio of 15.5 to 1, which would allow hard currency between the nations to be freely interchangeable. Made official on August 1, 1866, Bulgaria and Greece acceded in 1868, and six other countries would be members of the Latin Monetary Union before 1889. Included in the provisions of the agreement were a set monetary conversion fee of 1.25%, and limits on how many coins could be minted by each member nation. In effect, by abiding by the standards, any country’s coins could circulate freely and on par within any other country who was a member of the LMU, minus the nominal handling fee. Indeed, other countries came to adopt the metric standard without ever becoming official members of the LMU. The Latin Monetary Union Metric System called for member countries to mint coins according to the following fixed metric system standards: Unit Weight / composition 0.5 2.5000 gram 0.835 silver (0.0671 oz.) 1 5.0000 gram 0.835 silver (0.1342 oz.) 2 10.0000 gram 0.835 silver (0.2685 oz.) 5 25.0000 gram 0.900 silver (0.7234 oz.) 10 3.2258 gram 0.900 gold (0.0933 oz.) 20 6.4516 gram 0.900 gold (0.1867 oz.) 50 16.1290 gram 0.900 gold (0.4667 oz.) 100 32.2580 gram 0.900 gold (0.9334 oz.) The discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848, caused vast amounts of American gold to find its way into the international market, depressing its value in terms of silver coin. Stated another way, silver soared in value by comparison to gold, and it became profitable to melt silver coins since their intrinsic worth exceeded face value. Minor currency disappeared from circulation in the United States by the 1850s, even despite attempts to stem hoarding by decreasing the weight of silver coins in 1853. During the 1870s, the converse took place, as silver from the Comstock Lode and other Nevada mines flooded the world markets and decreased the value of silver. In addition, to the consternation of silver mine owners in the United States, the Fourth Coinage Act was enacted by Congress in 1873 (the “Crime of ‘73”), embracing the gold standard and demonetizing silver. This brought an end to the silver dollar as the basic unit of domestic commerce (and introduced the Trade dollar for use in international commerce), and considerably lessened the amount of silver the mints had to buy for coinage, which in turn lay waste to silver mining industry profits. Silver’s decline in value prompted a severe influx of silver coinage into the LMU members’ circulation during this time period, and union members attempted to limit free conversion of silver, but these efforts failed. By 1878, minting of silver coins was suspended, and from then on, the LMU was on a de-facto gold standard. In 1879, the Honorable John A. Kasson, U. S. minister to Austria, conceived of a plan to fix the ratio between silver and gold, end the problem of precious metal price fluctuation, and simultaneously introduce a coin that could prove acceptable for use in Europe – the gold stella – by stating its metallic content in the metric system. The coin was struck for only two years, ending in 1880 when Congress was forced to admit that a four dollar denomination was a superfluous addition to the $2.50, $3.00 and $5.00 denominations already in existence. The coins remained popular only as collector items thereafter. Eliasberg (Bowers & Ruddy, Oct. 1982, Lot 318) At the order of Congress to produce pattern four dollar coins in anticipation of regular issue for use in international transactions, Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber prepared an obverse design that depicted a portrait of Liberty with flowing hair, facing left, and George T. Morgan prepared an alternative obverse with coiled hair, also facing left. An inscription: 6G.3S.7C7GRAMS* around the central reverse portrait indicated the metallic composition. Though coined in such quantity in 1879 that truly, the flowing hair type is not rare, those dated 1880 were struck in the extremely limited quantity of just fifteen pieces, all in proof format. Despite the lack of an NGC designation as such, the Eliasberg example exhibits considerable cameo contrast between the obverse field and devices, though the depth of the mirrors is perceptibly less on the reverse, suggesting an interesting marriage between a freshly prepared obverse die and a reverse die that had already seen use. This should come as no surprise, since a single reverse die was used to strike all stellas. Cartwheel mint luster coruscates readily about the reverse of the Eliasberg proof, much as one might expect from a coin intended for the channels of commerce. The United States took several steps that could be interpreted as preparation for joining the Latin Monetary Union, though it never actually happened. Gold coinage was already within one percent of the LMU standard at the rate of five LMU francs per U.S. dollar, and the twenty cent coin virtually mirrored specifications for the silver franc. The Mint Act of 1873 increased the mass of the dime, quarter dollar, and half dollar to essentially the LMU standard. However, the United States never got closer than the minting of the stella (and quintuple-stella) patterns, produced very near the European metric standard. The government decided not to resize its gold coins, and kept the large silver dollar, which was minted using a 16 to 1 ratio for silver to gold. Breen thought that the 1880 obverse might have begun as an 1879, as he draws attention to a possible “79” underlying they “80”, and knowing that he did examine the Eliasberg coin, it is possible that he had it in mind when putting forth that assertion. There is no doubt that under close inspection, the “0”, if not the “80” is clearly repunched over something!
Low Estimate:	$1.00
High Estimate:	$1.00
Lot Status:	Bidding has been closed for this lot.
Hammered Price:	$430,000.00
Price Realized:	-

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