Officially called the four dollar coin is affectionately called Stella in the United States. T was the unit of the currency in the country and originally it was minted as a universal coin exchangeable with any currency around the world. Two types of design were made for this denomination: one with flowing hair designed by Charles E. Barber and one with coiled hair designed by George T.Morgan.

The Stella coin was produced to join the Latin Monetary Union, it was issued around 1879 to 18180 on the insistence of John A. Kasson. This Stella was meant to contain a quantity of precious metal similar to that of the standard LMU gold piece, the twenty-franc Napoleon minted in France, Switzerland, and other LMU countries. The weight standards were not maintained and the LMU rejected the proposition to accept these coins.

Later on, these coins became a part of great scandal as many Madams of the Washington bordellos started using it as a part of jewellery. That time only 425 specimens of the Stella were minted and all 1880 coins are rare of which 16 or 17 examples are known.

Image Courtesy: coinnews.net