Are you looking to add a crowning achievement to your coin collection? The Stack’s Bowers Galleries official auction of the Whitman Baltimore Expo in November will include a Premium Gem Flowing Hair Stella.
While never issued for circulation and by all definitions a pattern coin, the Stella’s inclusion over the years in the Guide Book has made the denomination an essential part of a complete gold type set. Today, most Stellas are found either impaired or well preserved. Many appear to have ended up as jewelry or as pocket pieces, with some apocryphal accounts even placing these worn coins in the hands of proprietors of Washington’s many “houses of ill repute,” though this claim has not been reasonably proven. Others were clearly well cared-for, such as the present piece, and have become cherished mementos. The addition of a Stella to one’s numismatic holdings has always been a crowning achievement.