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Stacks Bowers Galleries is thrilled to present the incredible 1879 Quintuple Stella from the Garrett Collection in their Official Auction of the Whitman Coins & Collectibles Baltimore Expo this March.
The 1879 Quintuple Stella is among the most legendary issues of United States numismatics, recognized for both its beauty and incredible rarity. It is the larger sibling to the more prolific Four-Dollar Stellas struck in 1879 and 1880, and shares with them a similar obverse legend outlining their proposed compositions in metric units. These issues were products of a global push to establish an international currency and stabilize the price of silver, which had been falling since the California Gold Rush, which began in the late 1840s. Though the Mint issued several significant patterns in the 1870s and 1880s, none were ultimately approved for circulation and the idea of an international currency was abandoned by the United States.