Omaha daily bee., 1897-07-22
ONE FOUR-DOLLAR GOLD PIECE.
e. Il. BeIknap in Possession Of One of
the Nnlunblc Coins.

". Va belhA j" VI oHs VI
the Valuable" Coins.
E. e. Belknap of this city is the owner
of one of the 81 gold coins of 1879 coinage.
1t is one of the kind refused at the sub
treasury at Cincinnati, referred to in a
clipping from the Cincinnati Enquirer
printed in The Bee yesterday morning, as
being wholly unknown to the treasury
officials, who refused to accept it even at ito
bullion value. Mr.. Belknap received the
coin in 1850 from Colonel w. f. Sapp, who
was then representing the Ninth congress
sional district in congress, and he is quite
familiar with the history of the coin and its
experiences at the United States mint. The
refusal of the subtreasury officials to accept
the coin indicated a rather remarkable ig-
norance of the events in recent mint hietory,
and also indicated that they were not wide
awake numismatists, for the value Of the
coin is considerably more than is indicated
by it's face or as bullion.
Colonel Sapp, so far as now known, had
only two of the coin9 and both Of these he
paid out while at home after his return from
Washington in 1880. One was given to Mr..
Belknap in payment for tailor work and the
other to a Scandinavian farm hand EN-
ployed on Colonel Sapp's farm. Congress-
man Sapp explained their history and told
the men to keep them, that there was a
probability OF them being worth a good deal
more than their face value. Mr.. Belknap
wrapped his up in tissue paper and has
so carefully preserved 1t that it is as I'M
blemished now as when 1t came from the
mint.
The history of the coin is somewhat inter
esting. Only a very few were coined, and
only a small portion of theee passed into
circulation. 1t was the result of an attempt
made a number OF years ago to recognize
the metric system Of weights and measures,
and the series of coins were designed for
international circulation. The house com
mittee on coinage, weights and measures
frequently i~nstructs the superintendent of
the mint to execute new patterns or expert
mental pieces for inspectioI1 and II they
are deemed worthy of adoption the com
mittee frames the necessary bill and intro
duces 1t into congress. Under this arrange
ment the series of 1879 were devised, known
as the stella, and having the United States
standard value of 81. The design was APP
proved by the committee and a bill intro
duced anticipating a metric coin for inter
national use. The coin ie the size Of the
nickel, and is a handsome thing. The Lib
erty head" Is turned to the left on the OBJ.
verse side. with 1879 below, thirteen stars
The figures and letters that extend nearly
all of the way around the edge indicate
the proportion of gold, alloy, etc,
The stella is one of the set designated
metric goloid, the other two being the
metric dollar and the goloid metric dollar
Only twenty sets were struck carly in 1877!
to be submitted to the committee. A little
later 100 sets were struck, and still later
800 sets we're ordered coined. These were
officially offered to members OF congress
personal and political friends at their in
trinsic value. Congressman sapp received
two. Not more than $50 found their wa!
into miscellaneous hands, and the remainder
are still believed to be in the United States
vaults. OF the original twenty sete a few
have sold for as high as 800, and the price
of later additions have ranged down from
$50 to $3.50. The bill for their issue faileC
to become a law, and they are consequent,
not legal tender and could not be forceC
upon an unwilling creditor. Mr.. BelknaI
has been offered some fancy prices for tn,
excellent specimen he has kept so carefully