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A 1798 Eagle Design on a 1795 $5 Gold Piece?The eagle designs (on right, above) both appear on the five dollar gold coins of 1798. This fact is evidence of 1) early American time travel, or 2) one of the charming coin mistakes of the early US Mint.Well in advance of Einstein’s theories of relative time (you remember… approach the speed of light and time will slow – exceed the speed of light and time will go backwards…), early US Mint designer Robert Scot seems to have perfected… Time Travel?Probably not.However, it is known with certainty that the large, heraldic eagle design (bottom right, above) was produced in 1798 to replace the small eagle (top right, above) used each year beginning in 1795. (Critics of the small eagle unkindly compared its “scrawny” appearance to – a turkey…) So why are there 1795 coins, and coins from 1796 and 1797 for that matter, with the large impressive eagle of 1798? Yellow Fever.Every summer The US Mint would shut down, and the staff disappear into the countryside, to escape the ravages of yellow fever which routinely plagued the city of Philadelphia. Meanwhile, the requests for coinage (gold coin was made to order in those days) backed up.In 1798, upon the reopening of the mint, workers hurriedly paired whatever obverse dies remained on hand, regardless of date, with the authorized large eagle on the reverse die. As it happened, dies from 1795 – 1797 were found with a bit of life left in them, i.e., they were not yet completely worn out. The error was explained as an emergency measure to meet backlogged coinage requirements. So – no time travel. Just a timely way for the mint to recover from its yellow fever induced vacation.
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