EAGLE, in Numismatics, a sort of base money which was current in Ireland in the early part of the reign of Edward I., that is, about the year 1272. There were also lionines, rosades, and many other coins of the same sort, named according to the figures with which they were impressed. The current coin of the kingdom at that time was a composition of copper and silver, in determinate proportions; but these were so much inferior to the standard of that time, that they were not intrinsically worth half so much as the others. They were imported from France and other foreign countries. When Edward had been a few years established on the throne, he set up mints in Ireland for coining good money, and then prohibited the use of eagles, and other kinds of base coin; making it death, with confiscation of effects, to import any more of them into the kingdom. Eagle is the designation of the principal gold coin of the American United States.