The eagle was the first permanent gold coin minted by the United States in 1795.
The Coinage Act of 1792 defined the eagle as a ten-dollar gold coin, alongside the five-dollar half eagle and the quarter eagle. The United States Mint began producing eagles in 1795, three years after the law established the federal coinage system.
The word “eagle” referred both to the denomination and to the coin’s design imagery. Early eagles showed Liberty on the obverse and an eagle on the reverse, reflecting common symbols of the new republic.
The eagle should not be confused with the double eagle, a twenty-dollar coin first minted in 1849, or the half eagle, worth five dollars. The term also appears in modern bullion and commemorative coin names.