EAGLES ON ANCIENT COINS

Majestic, powerful, swift, and intelligent, the eagle has held a strong grip on human imagination since the earliest times. The bald eagle, native to North America, features prominently on the Great Seal of the United States, and on many classic and modern American coins. The U.S. $10 gold piece was called an Eagle, and the current one-ounce silver bullion coin bears the same name.

The golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), native to the Old World, is frequently seen on ancient coins. A search for the term eagle on the Coin Archives Pro database, which currently lists over 1.8 million auction records, found 128,257 hits. Eagle and Tetradrachm (a common collectable ancient) produced 24,099 records. Eagles appear on eight coins listed in Harlan J. Berk's 100 Greatest Ancient Coins.

Ionia

IONIA, Uncertain. Circa 600-550 BCE. EL Hekte – Sixth Stater(?) (8mm, 1.86 g). Uncertain standard. Eagle flying upward, head left / Incuse square with two parallel right angle lines within. CNG E-408, lot 197 var. (lines in rev. punch); Rauch Summer Auction 2012, lot 345 var. (plain punch); otherwise unpublished. Good VF, as made. Extremely rare. Credit: CNG

The earliest appearance of an eagle on a coin dates from about 600-550 BCE: an electrum hekte (or one-sixth stater, 1.86 gram) from an uncertain mint in Ionia, on the eastern shore of the Aegean Sea. The bird is shown with wings outspread, the posture called eagle displayed in heraldry (Fox-Davies, 233). A unique, similar coin with a pelleted border and struck on a different weight standard (2.58 grams) is cited as one of the earliest attempts in numismatic art to represent a bird in flight (Rosen, 13).

Olympia

Elis, Olympia Stater circa 450-440, 82nd-87th Olympiad, AR 12.38 g. Eagle flying r., grasping hare with its talons and tearing at it with its beak. Rev. Nike running l., holding wreath in extended r. hand and l. raising hem of chiton; in the field, F – A. All within incuse circle. Seltman 69 (AN/at?). Gillet 965 (this coin). SNG Copenhagen 358 (these dies). SNG Spencer-Churchill 165 (this coin). Credit: Numismatica Ars Classica The city of Elis in Greece managed the sacred site of Olympia, where the Olympic games were held every four years beginning in 776 BCE. Foreign coins were not accepted at the games, so visitors had to exchange their money for special issues that produced a tidy profit for Elis.

For about two centuries, Elis maintained a high standard of artistry on this coinage, which often included an eagle, the companion of Zeus. A lifelike eagle in flight, grasping a hare in its talons and tearing it with its beak appears on a coin of Elis, struck c. 450-440 BCE and pedigreed to the famous Spencer-Churchill collection, realized over $32,000 USD in a 2019 Swiss auction.

To read the complete article, see:
Eagles on Ancient Coins (https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/eagles-on-ancient-coins/)

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