  We describe a technique for connecting a nanometer-scale gold grain to leads
by atomic-scale gold point contacts. These devices differ from previous
metallic quantum dots in that the conducting channels are relatively
well-transmitting. We investigate the dependence of the Coulomb blockade on
contact resistance. The high-resistance devices display Coulomb blockade and
the low-resistance devices display a zero-bias conductance dip, both in
quantitative agreement with theory. We find that in the intermediate regime,
where the sample resistance is close to $h/e^2$, the I-V curve displays a
Coulomb staircase with symmetric contact capacitances.
