Stella
Value:	4.00 U.S. dollars United States dollar The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
Mass:	7.00g Gram The gram is a metric system unit of mass....
Diameter:	22.0 mm Millimetre The millimetre is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one thousandth of a metre, which is the SI base unit of length....
Thickness:	1.52 mm
Edge:	reeded
Composition:	6.00g Au Gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a... , 0.30g Ag Silver Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal... , 0.70g Cu Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...
Obverse
Design:	Liberty Liberty Liberty is a moral and political principle, or Right, that identifies the condition in which human beings are able to govern themselves, to behave according to their own free will, and take responsibility for their actions...  bust Bust (sculpture) A bust is a sculpted or cast representation of the upper part of the human figure, depicting a person's head and neck, as well as a variable portion of the chest and shoulders. The piece is normally supported by a plinth. These forms recreate the likeness of an individual...
Designers:	Charles E. Barber Charles E. Barber Charles Edward Barber was the sixth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1879 until his death in 1917. He succeeded his father, William Barber, in the position... , George T. Morgan George T. Morgan George T. Morgan was an English United States Mint engraver, who is famous for designing many popular coins, such as the Morgan Dollar, and the Columbian Exposition half dollar.-Biography:... (Two different obverse patterns were used.)
Design Date:	1879
Reverse
Design:	five-pointed star Star A star is a massive, luminous sphere of plasma held together by gravity. At the end of its lifetime, a star can also contain a proportion of degenerate matter. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun, which is the source of most of the energy on Earth...
Designer:	Charles E. Barber Charles E. Barber Charles Edward Barber was the sixth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1879 until his death in 1917. He succeeded his father, William Barber, in the position...
Design Date:	1879

The United States

United States coinage

United States coinage was first minted by the new republic in 1792. New coins have been produced every year since then and they make up a valuable aspect of the United States currency system. Today circulating coins exist in denominations: $0.01, $0.05, $0.10, $0.25, $0.50, and $1.00. Also minted...

 four dollar

Dollar

The dollar is the name of the official currency of many countries, including Australia, Belize, Canada, Ecuador, El Salvador, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States.-Etymology:...

 coin, also officially called a Stella, is a unit of currency

Currency

In economics, currency refers to a generally accepted medium of exchange. These are usually the coins and banknotes of a particular government, which comprise the physical aspects of a nation's money supply...

 equivalent to four United States dollar

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

s.

History

The Stella was a pattern coin

Pattern coin

A pattern coin is a coin which has not been approved for release, produced for the purpose of evaluating a proposed coin design. They are often off-metal strikes, to proof standard or piedforts...

 produced to explore the possibility of joining the Latin Monetary Union

Latin Monetary Union

The Latin Monetary Union was a 19th century attempt to unify several European currencies, at a time when most circulating coins were still made of gold and silver...

 (LMU); these patterns were produced in 1879 and 1880 at the urging of John A. Kasson

John A. Kasson

John Adam Kasson was a nineteenth century lawyer, politician and diplomat from south-central Iowa. Elected to the U.S...

, a former chairman of the United States House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. The Stella was meant to contain a quantity of precious metal similar to that of the standard LMU gold piece, the twenty-franc Napoleon

Napoleon (coin)

The Napoleon is the colloquial term for a former French gold coin. The coins were minted in denominations of , , , , and francs. This article will focus on the 20 franc coins issued during the reign of Napoleon, which are 21 mm in diameter, weigh 6.45 grams and, at 90% pure, contain 0.1867...

 minted in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and other LMU countries.

Two different designs obverse were produced: one with flowing hair; in the other the hair is coiled. Both bear the same inscription "★6★G

Gold

Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...

★.3★S

Silver

Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...

★.7★C

Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; an exposed surface has a reddish-orange tarnish...

★7★G

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

★R

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

★A

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

★M

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

★S

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

★" ("★" is a Unicode

Unicode

Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...

 character that should be a five-pointed star) and the date.
The reverse star had the inscriptions ONE STELLA and 400 CENTS, while the reverse rim had the legends UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FOUR DOL., and circling the star but between its points were the legends E PLURIBUS UNUM

E pluribus unum

E pluribus unum , Latin for "Out of many, one", is a phrase on the Seal of the United States, along with Annuit cœptis and Novus ordo seclorum, and adopted by an Act of Congress in 1782...

("Out of many, one") and DEO EST GLORIA ("To God is the glory").

The coin and the prospect of joining the Latin Monetary Union were rejected by Congress

United States Congress

The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

, but not before several hundred restrikes of the Barber

Charles E. Barber

Charles Edward Barber was the sixth Chief Engraver of the United States Mint from 1879 until his death in 1917. He succeeded his father, William Barber, in the position...

 flowing hair design had been produced and sold to Congressmen at the cost of production. These later became a source of scandal

Scandal

A scandal is a widely publicized allegation or set of allegations that damages the reputation of an institution, individual or creed...

 when it was noted that a number of them ended up as jewelry pieces adorning the necks of madam

Madam

Madam, or madame, is a polite title used for women which, in English, is the equivalent of Mrs. or Ms., and is often found abbreviated as "ma'am", and less frequently as "ma'm". It is derived from the French madame, which means "my lady", the feminine form of lord; the plural of ma dame in this...

s operating some of Washington

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

's most famous bordellos.

Five examples of a pattern quintuple stella denominated at 20 dollars were produced in 1879 as well. These coins used a modified version of the then current Liberty Head (Coronet) design of the double eagle

Double Eagle

A Double Eagle is a gold coin of the United States with a denomination of $20. . The coins are made from a 90% gold and 10% copper alloy....

, replacing the stars on the obverse with "★30★G★1.5★S★3.5★C★35★G★R★A★M★S★", and the motto IN GOD WE TRUST

In God We Trust

"In God We Trust" was adopted as the official motto of the United States in 1956. It is also the motto of the U.S. state of Florida. The Legality of this motto has been questioned because of the United States Constitution forbidding the government to make any law respecting the establishment of a...

on the reverse with the same DEO EST GLORIA found on the reverse of the stella.

Only 425 examples of the Stella were made.

External links

• http://www.zoomcoin.com/rare-coin-gallery/coin/four-dollar-gold-or-stella/ Monaco Rare Coins
• www.unionlatine.com Pictures and mintage figures of the stella and the quintuple stella.
• http://coinauctionshelp.com/Pattern_Guides/$4.00stellapatterns.html Stella Pattern images and historical information.