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Auction: 324 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 809

1879 Coiled Hair Four Dollars, Judd-1640, Pollock-1840, High R.7, NGC PF66 Cameo. Ex: Lemus Collection. George T. Morgan's Coiled Hair design. Liberty's hair is braided, and a hair band in front reads LIBERTY. 6*G*.3*S*.7*C*7*GR*A*M*S* circles the obverse. A five-pointed star occupies the center of the reverse, surrounded by E PLURIBUS UNUM and DEO EST GLORIA. Struck in aluminum with a reeded edge. The main devices contrast greatly with the highly reflective fields, justifying the Cameo designation from NGC. A light contact mark can be seen under low magnification on the lower left arm of the five-pointed star on the reverse. NGC has certified only one example in PR 66 Cameo and one example in PR 67 Cameo.

While it seems sensible that examples were struck in aluminum as an economy measure, just the opposite is true. When these patterns were struck, aluminum was more precious than gold. The Emperor Napoleon reserved aluminum table ware for his most honored dinner guests.

There are perhaps a total of four separate non-gilt specimens:

1. Public Auction Sale (Lester Merkin, 9/1967), lot 407; Rio Rancho (Superior, 10/1974), lot 136; 1979 ANA Sale (New England Rare Coin Auctions, 7/1979), lot 1358; Pittsburgh Elite Coin Auction (Superior, 8/2004), lot 893, realized $89,125. Not gilt.

2. Rare Coin List #10 (Paramount, 6/1975); Dallas Bank Collection (Sotheby's/Stack's, 10/2001), lot 369. Not gilt.

3. Edward Maris Collection (H.P. Smith, 6/1886), lot 221; Garrett Collection (Stack's, 3/1976), lot 668; Harry Bass; Harry Bass Research Foundation. Not gilt.

4. CSNS (Rarcoa, 5/1971), lot 397; Winter ANA (Steve Ivy, 2/1983), lot 1791; 1988 ANA (Heritage, 7/1988), lot 2759; The Lemus Collection (Heritage, 1/2009), lot 1930. The present example. Not gilt.

Estimate
$80,000 to $120,000