Lear Capital Assembles Gold Coin Set; Sold for $6.5 Million June 10, 2008
LOS ANGELES, June 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Lear Capital, the West
Los Angeles- based precious metals company has assembled the
world's finest known gold coin set that includes four of all
the finest known coins. A collector has commissioned the four
coins to create one of the most expensive sets available.
The set is valued at more than $6.5 million.
To complete the set, Lear spent three years trying to obtain
an 1880 Coiled Hair Four Dollar Stella for its client, a prominent
New York businessman who collects rare coins. Lear obtained
the "Four Dollar Stella" in late 2007. As one-of-only-eight
known, this 1880 Coiled Hair Four Dollar Stella is the finest
known and valued at more than $3 million.
The Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC), the official grading
service of the American Numismatic Association and a provider
of third-party coin grading services, graded all four coins.
The set can be viewed online at http://www.ngccoin.com/stella.
"We relied upon the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation
and their expertise in grading to help assemble the set "It
is a gorgeous and impressive set that contains so much American
history."
The "Four Dollar Stella" completes a set that contains
an 1879 Flowing Hair (425 known), 1879 Coiled Hair (12 known),
and an 1880 Flowing Hair (17 known). The set contains the
finest known examples of each date.
The Stella was one of many proposals made to Congress for
an International Trade Coin and only one of several that made
it in pattern-coin form. Some of the finest known Stella specimens
are housed in the National Numismatic Collection in the Smithsonian
Institute while the others are in private collections.