The Turban Head eagle was a ten-dollar gold piece, or eagle, struck by the United States Mint from 1795 to 1804. The piece was designed by Robert Scot, and was the first in the eagle series, which continued until the Mint ceased striking gold coins for circulation in 1933. The common name is a misnomer; Liberty does not wear a turban but a cap, believed by some to be a pileus or Liberty cap: her hair twisting around the headgear makes it appear to be a turban. The number of stars on the obverse was initially intended to be equal to the number of states in the Union, but with the number at 16, that idea was abandoned in favor of using 13 stars in honor of the original states. The initial reverse, featuring an eagle with a wreath in its mouth, proved unpopular and was replaced by a heraldic eagle. Increases in the price of gold made it profitable for the coins to be melted down, and in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson ended coinage of eagles; the denomination was not struck again for circulation for a third of a century. Four 1804-dated eagles (one shown), which were struck in 1834 for inclusion in sets of US coins to be given to foreign potentates, are among the most valuable US coins.
Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turban_Head_eagle
_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1600:
The Peruvian stratovolcano Huaynaputina exploded in the most violent eruption in the recorded history of South America. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huaynaputina
1937:
An attempt to assassinate Italian Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani in Addis Ababa failed, triggering a brutal crackdown of Ethiopians over the following three days. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yekatit_12
1942:
World War II: U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forcible relocation of over 112,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese people residing in the United States to internment camps. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_American_internment
1963:
Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, a non-fiction book credited with sparking the beginning of second-wave feminism in the United States, was first published. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feminine_Mystique
2006:
A methane explosion in a coal mine in Nueva Rosita, Mexico, trapped and killed 65 miners. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasta_de_Conchos_mine_disaster
_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
tor: (South-West England) A hill. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tor
___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming — well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate. Isn’t that true? --Amy Tan https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Amy_Tan