Peter, Stuffed Eagle of the Mint
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Peter the Bald Eagle was famous in life and immortalized after death. While still alive he was the unofficial mascot of the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, having simply flown into the building one day and deciding to hang around.
This went on for six years in the 1830s. Peter then unwisely decided to perch on the flywheel of a coining press; it caught his wing, crippled him, and he died. The mint had Peter stuffed -- he was a good-looking bird -- and for years its engravers used his body as a convenient model whenever they had to put a bald eagle on a new U.S. coin.
Millions of Americans have carried Peter in their pockets, and he's still an attraction nearly 200 years after his awkward death.