United States, Half Eagle ($5 Gold), Classic Head, 1834

United States five-dollar gold coin, 1834, Classic Head type. The obverse features the head of LIBERTY and stars; the reverse shows an eagle with a shield and the text "5 D.". The records of the National Numismatic Collection state: gold, fineness 0.8990, diameter 22.5 mm, weight 8.36 grams. In the same year, 1834, the firm that became the U.S. government's European banker established agent August Belmont in New York in 1837, setting up offices on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1839, the London and Paris houses jointly loaned nine hundred thousand pounds to the Bank of the United States. This was an era when the gold coins of a nation that counted in dollars faced the ledgers of pounds.