The Mint Act of 1792 established the eagle to be the fundamental basis for America's gold coinage which would be used in international commerce as an economic ambassador for the young nation. It was not until 1795 that coinage of the denomination commenced. Designed by Robert Scot, the obverse of the new coin bore a representation of Liberty facing right flanked by stars while wearing a cloth freedman's cap, with the legend LIBERTY above and the date below. The reverse featured an elegant yet somewhat scrawny eagle with spread wings holding a wreath in its beak, all the while clutching a palm frond in its talons. This simple and attractive design was used for all of three years until Scot completely redesigned the reverse to put forth more powerful and dramatic imagery. Scot's Heraldic Eagle reverse was based on the obverse of the Great Seal of the United States: in the center is a large eagle with outstretched wings and legs and the national shield across its breast. In its left talon is a clutch of arrows and in its right talon an olive branch of peace. The placement of the arrows in the left or sinister claw stands in contrast to the Great Seal, where the olive branch takes that position of honor. Scot may have not have been aware that this placement of the arrows conveys a more warlike posture in the language of heraldry. In the eagle's beak is a ribbon inscribed E PLURIBUS UNUM. Above its head is an array of 13 stars surmounted by an arch of clouds. The entire design is surrounded by the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. The Heraldic Eagle reverse would be used until 1804 when production of the eagle was suspended for the next 34 years.

The year 1799 proved to be an eventful year in our nation's history. Two famed patriots, George Washington and Patrick Henry, died and were widely mourned across the nation. In Cabarrus County, North Carolina, a young Conrad John Reed found a shiny and very heavy yellow rock that turned out to be a gold nugget weighing 17 pounds consequently igniting the first gold rush in the United States. Gold from the Southern states would in time form the principle source of the metal to the Mint until the vast discoveries in California in 1849. In this year, the production of the eagle was stepped up to significant levels after having been struck in modest quantities since its inception. According to Mint records, 37,449 coins were struck in two major obverse design varieties, Small Stars and Large Stars. A total of six obverse and six reverse dies were employed in a total of ten die combinations: eight die pairings for the Small Stars variety and only two pairings for the Large Stars. Of the two major varieties of the 1799 eagle, the Small Stars type is widely thought to have been the first struck and is the slightly scarcer of the two, albeit not by much. At some point the Small Stars punch with long and thin points broke and a new punch was prepared with starts that shorter but much "fatter and puffier," as Garrett and Guth note. The resultant obverse die, Bass-Dannreuther Die 6, was mated to two reverse dies Bass-Dannreuther Die E and Die F, and used for the remainder of the year, producing an estimated 13,000 to 18,000 coins from these two pairs.

The United States Mint was fighting for its life in this era, continually condemned by Congress for failing to supply enough coin, though 17,000 eagles were coined in calendar year 1799 and others with this date were coined into 1800 as well. Deemed too expensive for its meager output, the Mint was threatened with shutdown due to factors beyond its control, most enshrined in the institution’s founding legislation. "Though the coining of gold and silver may, at times, be deemed expedient," a Congressional committee reported in March 1800, "there will still remain a doubt as to the propriety of keeping up the present mint establishment." Coins like this, so perfectly struck, up to the standards of beauty then typical in many European mints, may make modern collectors wonder if each one was a resume in metal intended to be seen by disdainful congressmen.

Despite his hard work at righting the ship, Mint Director Elias Boudinot could only soldier on and hope a legislative framework more friendly to the Mint could be erected. "The Director is sorry to observe," said Boudinot in his 1799 Annual Report, "that the practice of melting down the coin of the United States, by workmen in gold and silver, is, he fears, becoming too common, to the manifest loss of the United States." The coins his employees worked so hard to produce were disappearing faster than they were being struck.

By the 20th century, few remained. Even fewer survived in gem condition, though more 1799 eagles are found in high grade than perhaps any other date in the early series. This was the specimen chosen by F.C.C. Boyd, one of the greatest collectors of the century, a numismatist whose passion for coins began before World War I and continued until his death in 1958. His cabinet of federal issue coins was primarily sold in several auctions conducted in 1945 and 1946 by Numismatic Gallery, the partnership of Abe Kosoff and Abner Kreisberg, then located on East 50th Street in New York. Boyd continued to collect other numismatic specialties, including paper money, medals, tokens, early American coins, and Latin American coins, many of which formed the basis of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection after Boyd's passing. The Boyd collection contained many of the great rarities of the U.S. series, including an 1804 dollar, 1854-S $5, and even a 1933 $20 (which he surrendered to the Secret Service on June 18, 1945). More common coins were acquired in the finest condition and upgraded whenever possible.

The example to the left was sold by Stack's Bowers Galleries in the March 2016 Baltimore Auction, where it realized $493,500.