Ever popular with collectors, the "Stella" or Four-Dollar gold coin, came about through the direct agitation of Congressman John Adam Kasson, who, along with Congressmen Richard P. "Silver Dick" Bland and William Darrah Kelley lobbied for new silver coinage (most notably the Morgan Dollar) that would bring revenues into the gold and silver rich states they represented. Kasson's "explanation" of the need for Four-Dollar gold pieces was that they would trade favorably on the international market in exchange for foreign coins that had no counterpart in our coinage system. Congress saw through his thinly veiled explanation, however, and after brief production runs in 1879 and 1880, mostly created as gifts for Congressmen, etc., the coinage of Stellas was stopped.