Patterns & Experimental Coinage

In 1879 the U.S. Mint struck a gold coin worth four dollars — a denomination that did not exist, would never be authorized, and was meant to be spent in Paris. It was one of hundreds of coins the Mint made over a century with no intention of putting them in your pocket: a cent with a silver heart, a dollar of three metals at once, a fifty-dollar gold piece. Most were rejected. A few are now among the most coveted objects in American numismatics.