4 Dollars "Stella" · “Stella”

The $4 Stella — the gold coin America designed but never spent

In 1879 the United States Mint struck a gold coin worth four dollars — a denomination that never existed before and never would again. It was meant to let an American traveler hand over one coin in Paris or Vienna and get fair change. Congress studied it, admired it, and killed it. What's left is a few hundred patterns that today rank among the most coveted objects in American numismatics.