Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-11-10
THE FoUR-DoLLAR GOLD PIECE.
Facts About Its Coinage a Quarter Of
Century Ago.

In the Cincinnati Enquirer of April
:. appears a clipping from your paper.
with heading reading: Unique
Coin is the'Stella' the only Four
Dollar Gold Piece in the World" in
which you say that 81 gold coin
which probably the only one of its
kind in existence is on exhibition at
the Germania National Bank" at your
city, and that it is valued by the bank
officials at $500: that it is of the dia
meter of a 81 gold piece, but thinner:
that on its face is the well-known
Liberty head, without the cap and
around this are thirteen stars inter-
spersed with the letters &c G 8 S { :
Grams, and you say the exact mean-
ing OF these letters none of the bank
ofhclais have ascertained: that on the
reverse side of the coin is a five
pointed star in which is cut the in
scrlptlon. One Stella-406 cents"
around which are words "E Pluribus
/ MIN. Dec Est Gloria" and around
THESE forming the rim on this side of
the COM are the words. Omitted States
of America. Four Doll
You further say that about fifteen
years ago this coin was sent to Wash
lnSton by the Merchants Exchange
Bank OF your city, but that the only
information obtained was that the coin
was genuine. | have one of these\coinS
IN my possession and two others. part
gold and part silver coins minted 1T
me same time. On the face of the
Liberty head with the cap and the
year 1879. together with thirteen stars
and the words: "E Pluribus Uunm"
ON the reverse side it reads: Omitted
States az America. Gold Metric
Dollar. 15.3-G o36.1 $. CSC IA Grams"
and below it. Dec Est Gloria. one
Hundred Cents" The larger one has
the same face and Inscription. ana
on the reverse side the same as the
smaller one, with the exception that
II r""ds "S93.S-S. 4.2-G, 100-C -
Grams and the words: zone Dollar"
Tine cab,iistic characters e. :: s
ana {. . which puzzled your bank off
clitlS, stand for gold ). ana silver and
copper :. and | am able to give YOU
ne history of the minting of these.
several coins by the United States.
IheN We're minted, as thecoins show.
IN 1879 at which time | was in Con
greSs from Ohio, and Alexander n
stephens. vice president of the confed-
eFd'H, Was chairman of the committee
on coinage. weights and measures.
MI stephens introduced from the
committee Il bill to change our coinage
from lhe present to the metric system
corresponding withe the French s\-s-
tenn, as l recollect it, as indicated bv
'heSe coins, and thereupon Congress
passed an act that II limited number
Oh SETS OF these coins should be min
teh Tor the use of each member OF the
committee. the President and his cab
met. and possibly for each member of
congress and the Senate, but about
mat am not sure. The bill changing
the coinage failed to become q law,
ana thouSh it received considerable
consideration from Congress. and
am OF the impression that Alexander
III. stephens delivered a speech on
me subject. which was extensively.
punished at the time, vet in the sbort
period OF Twenty-Five years the whole
SUBJECT mas become so lost and for
gotten by the public that one of tho
coins found and on exhibition in on.
vi your banks is Speculated upon bv
'he press rs much as the discovery of
d hf!ueh com of the old Roman empir.
ana according to what you say. even
the ofiicIals at Washington know noth-
ING ABOUT it. Sic Transit Gjori,
Mundi' :"