1879 Coiled Hair Stella ($4 Gold)

A coin for an international money

In the 1870s several countries were pushing for a universal coin that would line up with the currencies of Europe. The most serious American attempt came in 1879. In a letter to the State Department dated January 3, 1879, John A. Kasson, a former congressman then serving as U.S. minister to Austria-Hungary, proposed a four-dollar gold coin whose metal content was stated in the metric system. It would be roughly equal to the coins of the Latin Monetary Union, such as the French 20-franc piece and the Austrian 8-florin piece, and would make travel and trade easier for Americans.

The letter went from the State Department to the Treasury and then to Alexander H. Stephens, the former Confederate vice president who chaired the House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. Stephens was closely associated with Dr. William Wheeler Hubbell, who had patented an alloy of gold, silver and copper he called goloid and promoted it for international coinage. Historian Roger W. Burdette has argued that Hubbell, not Kasson, was the real force behind the coin. Stephens asked Treasury Secretary John Sherman to have patterns struck for Congress to examine.

The coin took its name from the star on its reverse; stella means star. Its inscription spelled out its makeup: 6 grams of gold, 0.3 gram of silver and 0.7 gram of copper, 7 grams in all. It never matched its European targets exactly. One source puts its metal value at about $3.85, and another notes that the 20-franc piece it was meant to equal was worth $3.88. Congress rejected the coin, and the plan for an international American gold coin died.

Two engravers, two Libertys

The Mint produced two different portraits of Liberty for the stella. Charles E. Barber, the heir apparent to the chief engraver's post, designed a Liberty with long flowing hair. George T. Morgan, the assistant engraver who had just created the silver dollar that still carries his name, designed a Liberty whose braided hair is gathered in a coil on top of her head, a chignon of the kind fashionable among upper-class Victorian women. A headband on the Coiled Hair portrait reads LIBERTY.

Many numismatists credit Morgan with the Coiled Hair obverse because it closely resembles his portraits on the goloid and metric dollar patterns of the same period. Research by Burdette, published in the Journal of Numismatic Research in 2015, suggests that Barber may have adapted Morgan's design for the stella. The star reverse, shared by both types, is generally credited to Barber.

The reverse carries ONE STELLA and 400 CENTS inside the star, the mottos E PLURIBUS UNUM and DEO EST GLORIA between its points, and UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FOUR DOL. around the rim.

Washington, 1879 and 1880

The stella belonged to a year when American money was being reset. On January 1, 1879, the Specie Resumption Act took effect, and the greenback was valued the same as gold for the first time since the Civil War. In the same period the Mint struck pattern goloid and metric dollars, and the Coiled Hair stella was sold to collectors in sets with them.

Congressional interest in the four-dollar piece outran the plan. The first 40 sets were struck on a medal press in January 1880, Congress ordered 100 more sets that March, and hundreds of the more common Flowing Hair coins were eventually made for lawmakers, who bought them at the cost of production. An often-repeated and unproven story holds that some ended up as jewelry for women in Washington's bordellos; supporters point to the number of surviving coins that show signs of having been mounted.

Elsewhere that year, Frank Woolworth opened his first five-and-ten store in Utica, New York, in February; President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a law letting women attorneys argue before the Supreme Court; Congress created the U.S. Geological Survey; and on October 22 Thomas Edison tested his first practical electric light bulb.

Why the Coiled Hair is the prize

Several hundred 1879 Flowing Hair stellas were made; 425 is the commonly cited figure, and some estimates run as high as 725. The Coiled Hair was a different matter. No official record of its mintage, purpose or production has been found. It appears to have been struck in very small numbers and sold to collectors in 1879 and 1880, often in three-coin sets with a goloid dollar pattern and a metric dollar pattern. Early auction catalogs said only 10 were struck; because more than that are known, either the first figure was wrong or a few were restruck later. Researcher John Dannreuther estimates the mintage at 20.

Counts of survivors differ. Published estimates run from 12 to 15, and Dannreuther estimates 12 to 14; a 2017 dealer announcement said twelve. Rosters before 2026 had identified 13 examples; the roster compiled for the April 2026 sale traces 14, adding one newly documented coin.

The design was also struck in copper, aluminum and white metal (Judd-1639 to Judd-1641), and some stellas in base metal were gilded or later gold-plated. Specialists stress that an uncertified example carries too much risk, since the difference between gold and gilt can be six or seven figures.

Every known gold example shows fine parallel lines from the drawing bench. Many specialists believe the stellas were struck on half eagle blanks that were shaved or rolled down to size; other research suggests the planchet stock was rolled in a way that left the marks. Their position and angle differ from coin to coin, and along with lint marks, copper spots and die lines they are how each specimen is told apart.

Fourteen coins and their owners

The first known auction appearance came on March 29, 1882, in the sale of Philadelphia collector John Colvin Randall, where a Coiled Hair stella was offered in a goloid set described as excessively rare and never before offered. The latest roster also records an example selling for $6 in a small auction in January 1882, two months earlier, which would make the Randall offering the second known appearance rather than the first. That coin went on to the T. Harrison Garrett collection and Johns Hopkins University, actor Buddy Ebsen's collection and, eventually, the D.L. Hansen collection, selling along the way for $115,000 in 1979, $851,875 in January 2014 and, privately in December 2017, for a reported figure just over $1 million.

The roster reads like a list of great American cabinets. Examples passed through the collections of Louis E. Eliasberg Sr., Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, composer Jerome Kern, Amon G. Carter Jr. and King Farouk of Egypt. One sold for $22,000 in 1970. The Lilly coin was given to the Smithsonian in 1968, when Josiah K. Lilly's estate donated his gold collection in exchange for a $5.5 million tax credit.

Prices crossed $1 million in September 2013, when a Proof 67 Cameo brought $1,041,300, and again in January 2019 at $1,050,000. The Kern and Carter coin rose from $88,000 in 1984 to $881,250 in 2015 and $1,440,000 in August 2025. A PCGS Proof 66 Cameo sold for $1,464,000 in January 2026, the record for only four months.

At the Central States sale of April 29 to May 2, 2026, a newly documented NGC Proof 67 Cameo from the Presidio Collection drew 59 bids and sold for $2,135,000. It had been bought privately years earlier and had no known auction history; it is the plate coin in the sixth edition of 100 Greatest U.S. Coins and is tied for the finest certified. The same collection offered all four gold stella issues in that sale, and together they brought $3,968,050.

A failed coin collectors treat as real money

The stella is technically a pattern, but like the 1856 Flying Eagle cent and the 1836 Gobrecht dollar it is collected alongside regular U.S. coinage. The 1879 Coiled Hair is ranked 28th on a published list of the 100 greatest U.S. coins. A complete set of the four gold stellas, 1879 and 1880 in Flowing Hair and Coiled Hair, is one of the hardest feats in American numismatics, and complete sets usually appear only when a major collection is sold.

Among the four, the 1880 Coiled Hair is rarer still, and it has produced the highest stella prices, including $2,574,000 for an NGC Proof 67 Cameo in 2013 and $2,280,000 for an NGC Proof 67 in August 2025. But the 1879 Coiled Hair has the longer collecting history, prized as excessively rare by the first catalogers who saw it in 1882 and sought after ever since.

The numbers

Mintage

About 20 (estimate; no official record)

Known survivors

14 traced in the most recent roster; estimates 12 to 15

Weight

7 grams (stated on the coin)

Diameter

22 mm

Composition

About 85.7% gold, 4.3% silver, 10% copper (also rounded as 86/4/10)

Edge

Reeded

Designers

George T. Morgan (obverse, traditionally; Charles Barber may have adapted it) and Charles E. Barber (reverse)

Reference numbers

Judd-1638, Pollock-1838; rarity 6

Mint

Philadelphia (no mintmark)

Timeline

1. Jan 1, 1879

   The Specie Resumption Act takes effect.

2. Jan 3, 1879

   John A. Kasson proposes a four-dollar international gold coin in a letter to the State Department.

3. 1879

   The Mint prepares Flowing Hair and Coiled Hair stella patterns dated 1879.

4. Jan 1880

   The first 40 stella sets are struck on a medal press.

5. Mar 1880

   Congress orders 100 additional sets.

6. Jan 1882

   An 1879 Coiled Hair stella sells for $6 in a small auction.

7. Mar 29, 1882

   A Coiled Hair stella is offered in a goloid set in the John Colvin Randall sale, described as excessively rare.

8. Jun 1947

   A Coiled Hair stella sells as part of a complete set of stellas.

9. 1968

   The Lilly gold collection, including a Coiled Hair stella, goes to the Smithsonian.

10. May 1970

    An example once owned by King Farouk sells for $22,000.

11. Oct 1982

    The Eliasberg example sells for $101,750.

12. Sep 2013

    A Proof 67 Cameo sells for $1,041,300, the first seven-figure price in the published roster.

13. Jan 2014

    The Garrett example sells for $851,875.

14. Jan 2019

    A Proof 66 Cameo sells for $1,050,000.

15. Aug 2025

    The Kern and Carter example, PCGS Proof 65, sells for $1,440,000.

16. Jan 2026

    A PCGS Proof 66 Cameo sells for $1,464,000, a record for the issue.

17. May 2026

    A newly documented NGC Proof 67 Cameo sells for $2,135,000 after 59 bids.

The world in 1879

• Jan 1, 1879

  Specie payments resume; the greenback is valued at par with gold for the first time since the Civil War.

• Feb 15, 1879

  President Hayes signs a bill allowing women attorneys to argue before the Supreme Court.

• Feb 22, 1879

  Frank Woolworth opens his first five-and-ten store in Utica, New York.

• Mar 3, 1879

  The U.S. Geological Survey is created.

• Jul 8, 1879

  The Jeannette Expedition leaves San Francisco for the North Pole.

• Oct 22, 1879

  Thomas Edison tests his first practical electric light bulb.

• Dec 31, 1879

  Edison demonstrates incandescent lighting to the public at Menlo Park.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, 1879 Coiled Hair Stella ($4 Gold) is number 19 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (14 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Stella means star, and the coin's reverse is one big five-pointed star.
• The coin spells out its own recipe: 6 grams of gold, 0.3 of silver, 0.7 of copper, 7 grams in all.
• One 1879 Coiled Hair stella sold for $6 in January 1882; the same coin was reportedly sold privately for just over $1 million in 2017.
• The first 40 stella sets were struck in January 1880, so many 1879-dated stellas were made the following year.
• The Coiled Hair design was also struck in copper, aluminum and white metal.
• The record-setting 2026 example had no known auction history before it sold for $2,135,000.
• King Farouk of Egypt, Jerome Kern and Jerry Buss all owned an 1879 Coiled Hair stella.