ended there. It is said that the head upon some of our
later coins is a portrait. If so, its American type is not recognizable.
The head, whenever it appears upon the obverse of our coins, is Greek in
outline and expression. This is so strongly the character of the
features, that even where an attempt has been made to secure a
distinctly American type, as in the case of the three-dollar gold coin
of 1854, the cast of features is still Greek. Some slight modification
is made by accessories, such as the circlet of feathers about the head.
The obverse of the gold dollar of the same date bears what is described
as the head of a beautiful Indian; but the features are Greek, and the
hair is waving, unlike any ever seen among savages.

In descriptions of American coins, the eagle, which appears so often
and so prominent, is commonly spoken of as the American eagle. If one
will take the trouble to compare this figure in every position in which
it is displayed upon our coins, with the effigy of "the winged hound of
Zeus," so common on the coins of Greece, he will find the identity
complete. The only difference will be that the old hand-struck coins
show the vigor of original work, as compared with that of a copy.

Another familiar symbol on American coins is the bundle of arrows held
in one talon or the other of the eagle. On a few of our earlier coins
the number of these arrows was four or six, or even more; but commonly
there have been three, and now they are uniformly of that number. They
are arranged at a pretty definite angle. The two obliquely transverse
ones are in position and in form precisely like the two flashes of
lightning across the thunderbolt of Zeus, only the zigzag lines have
been straightened into arrow-shafts. It seems highly probable that the
point of the bolt between the two flashes itself developed into the
middle arrow, and thus makes up the traditional number three. The fact
that the thunderbolt is found in the talons of the eagle so often, upon
both Greek and Roman coins, makes the supposition a likely one.

Regarding the laurel and the olive, it need only be said that the branch
of itself symbolizes the presence of the divinity, to which the tree is
sacred, or it typifies some attribute or the exercise of some divine
office. As an illustration, Apollo is often shown using the laurel-bough
to sprinkle the people with purifying waters. But when boughs or leaves
are twined into a wreath, it is commonly t