Rare $4 Gold Coin Could Fetch $1.5M At Los Angeles Auction

A rare $4 gold coin could sell for up to $1.5 million at a Bonhams auction in Los Angeles later this month.

Rare $4 gold coin (Photo courtesy of Bonhams)

The 1880 $4 Coiled Hair Stella is among the 27 coins in Tacasyl Collection of Magnificent United States Proof Gold Coins that will be offered on September 23 as part of Bonhams' Coins and Medals auction. With six grams of pure gold in it, the said $4 gold coin is valued the highest out of the lot.

Bonhams said that the coin is "exceptionally rare." Although the precise mintage records are thus far lost, the consensus of researchers is that no more than ten to fifteen $4 Coiled Hair Stella coins were produced, with nearly ten surviving examples, it added.

"The $4 Stella Coiled Hair cameo coin is almost like the 'great white whale' for coin collectors, in that it has eluded so many of the best. Without a doubt, offering this coin and indeed the entire Tacasyl collection is the highlight of my career," said Paul Song, Director of the Rare Coins and Medals Department at Bonhams.

Stella coins were briefly produced between 1879-1880, in an ill-fated attempt to join the Latin Monetary Union (LMU), spearheaded by John A. Kasson, a former chairman of the United States House Committee on Coinage, Weights, and Measures. The coins were meant to contain an equivalent amount of precious metal as the 20-franc Napoleon coin used throughout Europe. Congress eventually rejected Kasson's plan, but several hundred Stellas had already been minted. Rumor has it the coins caused quite a scandal when they began appearing in the jewelry of some of Washington's most notorious madams.