5 Dollars (Constitution) obverse5 Dollars (Constitution) reverse
United States

5 Dollars (Constitution)

United States · Gold

The coin

The story

The 1987 Constitution $5 Gold — an Eagle That Traded Its Arrows for a Pen

In 1987, the U.S. Mint struck a small gold coin that did something most coins never do: it tried to shrink the national debt. Every buyer paid a $35 surcharge written into law for that single purpose — and the eagle on the front held not a clutch of arrows, but a writer's quill.

Read the full story