January 2025 - Week 2 Edition
The Tale of Peter the Eagle and the U.S. Mint
I want to share the good news that our flying friend – the Bald Eagle – on coins and in the air. A new law, approved by Congress and signed by President Joe Biden at the end of 2024, now officially recognizes the American Bald Eagle as the National Bird of the United States.
The Bald Eagle first gained recognition in 1782 on our Great Seal under the Articles of Confederation. The musical 1776 honored the Eagle over the turkey and the dove in a song pitting John Adams (favoring the eagle), Thomas Jefferson (loving the dove) and Ben Franklin (favoring the turkey). Most Americans likely thought the Eagle was already our national bird since it has appeared on U.S. coinage in one form or another since 1794, serving (until now) as the unofficial symbol of America’s power and prestige.
Today, I want to share the story of one particular eagle. He occupies a unique niche in the annals of U.S. coinage. He was a real bird, not just an image engraved on metal. His name was Peter and he’s said to have made his home for more than half a decade at the Philadelphia Mint in the 1830’s.
Peter is no myth. There’s little doubt that Peter existed as his stuffed body is on display at the current Philadelphia Mint, and Peter has been a popular attraction for the building’s many visitors. However, serious questions surround his years of occupying America’s primary mint in Philadelphia and whether it was the 1830s, or later.
The U.S. Mint website states that Peter, the original Mint Eagle, lived from 1830 to 1836 “at the first Philadelphia Mint,” but this appears to be at least partly inaccurate since the first Philadelphia Mint, affectionately known as Ye Olde Mint, ceased operations in January 1833. That’s when the much larger second Philadelphia Mint began producing coins and, given the cramped quarters and multiple small buildings at the original Philadelphia Mint, the first Mint wouldn’t have been conducive to hosting a restless eagle.
The Mint’s website also states, “The real Peter used to live up near the roof of the building. People would see him go out during the day to hunt for food and come home at night to sleep.” Given this, it seems far more likely that Peter’s adopted home was in the second Philadelphia Mint, a spacious edifice made of marble resembling an ancient Greek temple with large, graceful columns in both the front and rear.
In 1972, while still in my teens, I wrote a short article about Peter the Eagle for the Southwest Louisiana Coin Club Newsletter. My writing was based on information from a leading weekly industry publication at the time. In it, I concluded that Peter was a resident of the Mint for six years in the late 1840s to early 1850s. There was a pattern to Peter's comings and goings. In that article, I concluded, “Where he came from or why he chose the pressroom in the mint as his home can only be conjectured, but he did receive special consideration from the Mint employees and was permitted to come and go as he pleased.”
Peter was a common sight in the skies over Philadelphia during his daily outings. By today’s standards, Philadelphia was a small community – even though it ranked among the three or four largest cities in the nation at that time. U.S. Census figures show that The City of Brotherly Love had a population of 80,482 in 1830 and 121,376 in 1850, and there were few “suburbs,” as the countryside was largely undeveloped outside the city limits, so wild creatures could frequently be spotted in the heart of the urban center.
The exact dates of Peter's years at the Mint are in question but they hold significance for numismatic scholars, as Peter has been credited – rightly or wrongly – with inspiring the sculpted Eagle form or face on some of our most important U.S. coins. Perhaps the most significant of these is the beautiful Gobrecht dollar, a coin designed by Mint engraver, Christian Gobrecht, a coin first produced in 1836. Peter may have served as the model for the eagle on this much-acclaimed coin – but logically, that would only be possible if he were known to be at one of the Mint buildings in 1836 or before – or Modern Mint officials might well have had this tale in mind when they approved the dates of 1830 to 1836, which they included on their website decades later in retelling the tail of Peter the Eagle.
Peter is also said to have inspired the eagle on the Flying Eagle cent, which was atypically issued in only two years 1857 and 1858 but with three dates 1856, 1857 and 1858. This could have been the case if his stay at the Mint occurred during the period I cited in my article for the Southwest Louisiana Coin Club. Then again, some researchers maintain that the eagle on the cent was copied from the bird on the Gobrecht dollar.
Whether Peter resided at the Mint in the 1830s or the 1850s, he was remarkably tame by eagle standards. He was given access to much of the Mint's work area, including the coining facilities and he frequently landed on the coin presses themselves. Sadly, this propensity ultimately led to his sad and tragic demise.
One day, while Peter was perched on the flywheel of a coining press, the operator – not realizing Peter was there – activated the equipment and the regal bird’s wing got caught in the fast-spinning wheel. The wing was broken and Peter died soon afterward. Stricken with grief, the Mint employees took up a collection to hire a skilled taxidermist to stuff the bird’s body, which has since been viewed by millions of visitors to the second, third and fourth Philadelphia Mints – after first going on display well over a century ago. I enjoyed viewing Peter the Eagle on occasional trips to the Philadelphia Mint over the years at 151 N. Independence Mall East. Today’s mint artists still study Peter when crafting their new eagle images.
Peter himself and his story have become legendary, as this brief history attests. Now, the Wall Street Journal attests, in a December 31, 2024, editorial, proclaiming the American Bald Eagle is “heaven sent.” The article points out that the Bible mentions the Eagle at least 30 times, including promises to carry Israel out of Egypt “on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4) and promises that those who hope in the Lord “will soar on wings like eagles” (Isaiah 40:31). The American Bald Eagle is also a symbol of honor and courage among Native Americans. The conclusion in the Wall Street Journal’s editorial by Eli Federman put the eagle’s symbol in perspective:
“The eagle offers us more than a patriotic emblem. Its sharp vision urges us to focus on what matters. Its flight challenges us to rise above obstacles. Its nest reminds us of the importance of building strong foundations for future generations. In a world grappling with division, the eagle calls us to rise above turmoil, find clarity and soar toward the promise of something great.”
