US Historic Coins with Eagles Trivia Quiz

Answer: false

The reverse (back) showed two laurel or oak branches, with or without a shield depending on the year, but there was never an eagle, front or back.

Answer: The Flying Eagle was the first of the modern-sized small cents.

The Flying Eagle cent was only officially minted in 1857-1858, though a few hundred 1856 coins were made and presented to politicians, officials and such. If you collect coins, you want to find one of those 1856 coins! The Flying Eagle was the first small size cent. People hoarded the old large cent because it had become more valuable for its copper, so it soon disappeared from circulation, and the mint didn't want to keep losing money by making it, either.

But for various reasons, the Flying Eagle cent never caught on. Neither it nor the large cents were legal tender in their day, because only gold and silver could be legally used at the time, but they're legal now, so if someone tries to pay a 5-cent debt with five Flying Eagle cents, sadly you have to accept them.

Answer: Nothing

This is a beautiful coin, in my opinion, whether Type I or II. The Type I (minted 1916-1917) showed Lady Liberty with her bust barely draped, while the Type II (1918-1930) engraver overreacted to complaints, giving her sturdy chain mail to cover her chest. The eagle on both was fully covered with feathers, so no worries about a wardrobe malfunction there.

Answer: They were originally made of silver, not nickel, and "half dime" was their official name.

Nickels didn't get that nickname until the metal called nickel became common in the second half of the 1800s, due to new discoveries of ore. Lots of things were newly coated with it, from pistol parts to surgical instruments. Among the new things that people had to get used to, thanks to the new nickel mines, were copper coins coated in nickel, that replaced the old silver five-cent coins. Officially, the coins were still "half dimes." But the nickname "nickel" for nickel-coated coins was irresistible, about like nicknaming plastic credit cards "plastic" today.

Answer: false

This beautiful coin shows just a profile of Lady Liberty's head on the obverse (front), but an eagle perched with its wings spread on the reverse.

Answer: The sun's rays

Both Lady Liberty, shown walking toward you on the obverse, and the eagle flying right-to-left on the reverse, are pictured in front of the sun's bright rays. The sculptor, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, had been diagnosed with incurable cancer, but he persisted with his work, designing several coins at the request of President Theodore Roosevelt. He succumbed to his disease the same year his first $20 gold piece was minted for circulation.

Answer: He's got a long skinny neck and skinny wings. Feed him!

He looks skinny to me, compared to the usual patriotic eagles, but his neck is what's especially long and thin.

Answer: True

Pete (or Peter) was a pet at the Philadelphia mint for many years, living in the building but free to fly around the city too. He had perched on the press when it started, injuring his wing. Despite efforts to save him, he died at the mint among his friends. His body has been preserved and he still "flies," wings outspread, suspended from the ceiling at the mint.

Answer: Congress said they were to be called eagles officially in 1792.

The Coinage Act of 1792 established the mint and listed the specific U.S. coinage, including "Eagles--each to be of the value of ten dollars or units." Eagle coins were stopped in 1933 along with all other denominations of gold coins, then restarted in 1986 for collectors. Gold-colored dollar coins, mostly copper with a manganese-brass coating, were minted for general circulation starting in 2005 to replace paper bills, but consumers rejected them so thoroughly for everyday use that they were produced just for collectors only, beginning in 2012.

The 2005-2012 coins still show up in circulation occasionally, or are fun to get from the bank and use for special occasions, like kids' gifts when you'd give money but want something unique.

Answer: 1986, when gold coins were updated with new images

It's hard to tell the eagles' sex without others for size comparison--in nature, females are 1/3 larger--or without listening to their calls. Some engravings supposedly used the mint's pet eagle Pete as a model, so those are definitely male, if true. But there's nothing to indicate a coin eagle was definitely female, until the 1986 coins showed a family of a mother and babies in a nest, with a male arriving.