half eagle

noun

1. a gold coin of the U.S., discontinued in 1929, equal to five dollars.

half eagle

noun

1. a former US gold coin worth five dollars

Word History and Origins

Origin of half eagle¹

An Americanism dating back to 1780–90

Example Sentences

The 1854-S half eagle coin was struck in April 1854 one day after the opening of the San Francisco Mint, according to auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

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A week before even one white speckled egg had been laid in the oven-bird's nest, there was a golden half eagle in a happy little girl's palm.

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There lay the bundle, there glistened the half eagles in her hand.

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Instead, the government seized the double eagles — an eagle was a $10 piece, a half eagle a $5 — saying that since they had never been circulated, they must have been stolen.

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These symbolic beings present, indeed, a singular analogy with the Garuda, or rather the Garsudas of Indian Aryans, genii, half men, half eagles.

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