Lot 1007, 1885 $3

The Three Dollar denomination is today a collector's favorite, butwhile it was being produced it was barely used by the American public.Authorized in early 1853, its design was essentially an enlarged versionof the Type 3 Indian Head one dollar gold piece, also by James Longacre.

The reasons for creating such an odd denomination remain somewhathazy, but the first suggestion for the denomination dates back to June,1832. Whether historically founded or not, numismatists have suggestedwith some common-sense that the denomination was created to pay forlarge purchases of 3-cent postage stamps (100 to a sheet). Regardlessof the reasoning, the denomination was never popular. (Professor JohnAlexander, one of the first proponents of an international coinage in themid-1850s, called the denomination "an excrescence").

During its entirethirty-five year production from 1854 until 1889 only about 16,300three dollar gold pieces were produced in total (compared, for example,with the nearly 600,000 Quarter Eagles struck in Philadelphia in 1854alone). Of that total a meager 2,000 pieces were struck as proofs, and afraction of those have survived.

Lot 1008 1879 $4 Stella

Although the Stella is undoubtedly America's best known physicalmanifestation of an international currency, the idea of coinages whichwere of equivalent value and convertible in other countries was notnew. According to a recent article, in 1855 Professor John H. Alexanderpublished a pamphlet on an international coinage for the United Statesand Great Britain. The concept was to have the sovereign and half eagleof equal gold content and value. The idea reached the halls of Congress,which subsidized an exploratory trip to Great Britain for the professor, butfollowing Alexander's report the program failed to win support.

In Europe, the Latin Union was formed in 1865 and seven countries agreedto adopt the French currency system. The members of the Union wouldproduce coins of a national character, but their value and underlying goldcontent would be based on the French franc. In Paris, two years later atan International Monetary Conference it was agreed (in principal) that allconferees would adopt a similar system, but in subsequent debates thesystem, largely on nationalistic grounds, was defeated.

France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian War ended enthusiasm for theidea until 1878, when a second conference was held, again in Paris,at the urging of the United States. This time it was an internationalbimetallic standard that was proposed and it was as a result of this secondconference that the Stellas were developed, largely at the urging of JohnKasson, the United States Minister to Austria.

With Congressional approval and the support of the Secretary of State,the Mint was ordered to develop a coin which could not only circulatearound the world, be recognized as an international coin, but alsoindicate its value in a similarly multi-national way.

The Mint's solution to all of its charges was common sense: the valueof the coin was expressed not only in dollars (Four), but in the metalliccomposition of the coin itself; 6 grams gold; .3 grams silver; .7 gramscopper. To achieve this alloy, the Philadelphia Mint's assay shop simplymixed the correct proportions. Finally, to create an odd sized planchet,half eagle blanks were adjusted (probably by hand, as the striations varyfrom one example to another) to the correct weight.

When completed, the newly struck patterns were forwarded on to theCoinage Committee in Congress for approval. Word of their unusualdesign and beauty quickly made the Washington, D.C. rounds andadditional examples of the 1879 Flowing Hair variety were struck to satisfyCongressional demand. Ultimately though, like earlier efforts to createinternational coinage, legislators scuttled the plan, but not before creatingone of the United States' most sought-after collector coins.

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