According to a news piece published on April 16, 2012, a company headquartered in West LA has managed to set up a collection of $4 Rare Gold Coins and possibly the finest and rarest ever! This coveted set of four expensive Stella Coins, which has become the most expensive set of rare gold coins in the world, amounts to $6.5 million and more! For completing the set of rare coins, the company had to endure a three year long wait in order to procure the 1880 Coiled Hair Four Dollar Stella, for a NYC based business man who is a passionate rare coin collector. Interestingly, there are only about eight 1880 Coiled Hair Four Dollar Stella coins available in the world today, and each of these is valued at no less than $3 million!

All of the four coins making up this rare collection have been duly graded by The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, which is also the official grading authority for the American Numismatic Association. Third party services for grading can also be availed from the NGC.

Apart from the 1880 minted Coiled Hair Four Dollar Stella, that is indeed the finishing touch of the set, the other coins that make this assortment special, include the 1879 Flowing Hair of which there are only 425 specimens in existence, the 1879 Coiled Hair of which there are only 12 specimens in existence, and the 1880 minted Flowing Hair of which there are only 17 in existence. Easily, the set is a highly accomplished one, comprising the rarest variants one could possibly lay their hands on.

What Makes the $4 Stellas So Special?

The Stellas are four dollar coins that represent the move undertaken for the recognition of the Latin Monetary Union. This Union is basically an association of nations that worked for making international coinages. Although the US never became a part of the union officially, there were some structured efforts that were carried out for establishing common standards for US Coins in order to facilitate wider circulation. One of the prominent moves was the establishment of US Coinage in concurrence with the metric scale. This required a minute change in weights of silver coins minted in the United States. This change was marked through arrows encircling the date provided on the coins, which gave rise to newer coins dated 1874 and 1873.

Way back in 1879, the Congress members offered to create $4 coins for competing with coins of similar values, worldwide. Popular competition included 20 pesetas of Spain, the 20 Franc coin of France the 8 florins of Spain and Netherlands and the Italian 20 liras. For meeting the legislation proposal, the United States Mint went on to pattern some $4 coins through 1879 and 1880. These coins were provided with a new title, “Stella”, which means “star” in Latin. This new designation was quite similar to the “eagle” used fir $10 coins.

These pattern coins sported a unique design with two obverses. One obverse was with flowing hair and the other showed coiled hair. The former was engraved by Charles Barber and the latter by George Morgan. In the end however, the legislation for these $4 coin patterns was not passed by the Congress.

Investing in rare gold coins involves a fair bit of assessments. Therefore, make sure you have time on hands for evaluating your purchases before buying rare gold coins.