Thursday, 20 March 2014

American Silver Eagle - Anatomy 101

Get ready for 'Anatomy 101' of the American Silver Eagle coin - a

condensed description of all of the parts of each of the coins in the

program.

Body Parts

'Heads or 'Tails'. You guessed it - the American Silver Eagle is no

exception - it has one of each as usual - an 'obverse' side or the

'head' so to speak, and the 'reverse' side or the 'tail'. I guess that

you could say that there is a third side too, the 'edge', but not very

likely to come up in a flip of the Eagle. Each of the sides has an

outside rim to protect the impressed inner designs from wear. The edge

is 'reeded' with vertical ridges around the circumference that help

with gripping the coin. Oh yes, I almost forgot - the coin is round.

Of course, not all coins are round and have rims and reeded edges. Rims

are pretty standard now, multi-sided coins are rare, and edges are

varied in style - they can be just plain, more decorative, or even

lettered with the face value, date or some other identifying mark - on

some coins edge patterns are used to assist the blind in identifying

their denomination.

On either side of the Silver Eagle and inside the rim is where the real

content lies - areas of unique and engraved design, a 'legend' or

principal lettering, a mint mark, and other textual inscriptions - all

in relief or raised above the flat surface background which is called

the 'field' of the coin.

Facial Features

The orientation of content from the obverse to the reverse side of the

coin is not something that most people are aware of. It can be a 'coin

orientation' - as it is for the American Silver Eagle and all other

American coins - or a 'medallic orientation' - as it is for Australian

coins. 'Coin orientation' means that you see both sides upright when

flipping horizontally. 'Medallic orientation' means that you see both

sides upright when flipping vertically.

On the American Silver Eagle's obverse side is the principal design -

Adolph Weinman's 'Walking Liberty'. This is a revived version of his

original 'Walking Liberty Half Dollar' design, minted prior to 1946. It

has been described as:

    "a full length Liberty, the fold of the stars and stripes flying to

the breeze as a background, progressing in full stride toward the dawn

of a new day, carrying branches of laurel and oak symbolic of civil and

military glory. The hand of the figure is outstretched in bestowal of

the spirit of liberty."

Also on the obverse side of the Silver Eagle is the legend, "LIBERTY",

stretched across the top half circumference in large letters. In much

smaller letters located in the southeast outer area is the inscription,

"IN GOD WE TRUST". The mint date is inscribed in the center of the

bottom circumference.

On the American Silver Eagle's reverse side is an original relief

design by John Mercanti. It is composed of an heraldic eagle behind a

shield that signifies American strength. The eagle is holding an olive

branch and arrows in its talons. Located above the eagle is a

triangular arrangement of thirteen five-pointed stars representing the

"Thirteen Colonies".

Also on the reverse side is inscribed ".UNITED STATES OF AMERICA." on

the upper half circumference and "1 OZ. FINE SILVER~ONE DOLLAR" on the

lower half circumference. The words "E PLURIBUS UNUM" appear, as they

do by law now on all American coins, in scrolls around the wings of the

eagle. Finally, a mint mark is inscribed lower down below the eagle's

right wing (on the left side as we see it). Note, however, that there

are no mint marks on bullion silver eagles. Proof and uncirculated

(burnished) versions have an 'S' for the San Francisco Mint, a 'P' for

the Philadelphia Mint or a 'W' for the West Point Mint, depending upon

which mint produced the coin.

Different Species

American Silver Eagles are similar but really not all the same - the

mint mark or its absence as noted above is one obvious distinction

among them, the mint date is obviously another. There is also a quality

distinction in the mint version that is due to the different minting

processes used for bullion, proof and uncirculated (burnished) coins.

The bullion, the highest production version (about 8.3 million per year

on average until 2009), is automatically pressed from standard silver

planchets using a single strike - it is less striking in appearance

(pardon the pun) than the other versions.

Uncirculated Silver Eagles are created from blanks that have been

burnished by tumbling them in a wash of stainless steel shot, resulting

in a more polished and satin-like finish. The "W" mint mark is also

inscribed on these coins reflecting their striking at the United States

Mint at West Point.

Finally, the proof versions undergo a specialized minting process in

which burnished planchets are manually fed into presses fitted with

special dies that strike multiple times, creating a magnificent

appearance of detailed images floating above a mirrored background.

Minor Mutations

There is an unintentional variety or error that was generated when the

United States Mint made minor alterations to the 2007 reverse design

for 2008 and erroneously used the original 2007 reverse die in a small

part of the 2008 production.

Special Issues of the American Silver Eagle over the years have created

some other exceptions in their appearance. One example is the inclusion

of a special West Point minted proof Silver Eagle coin with a 'W' mint

mark in the 1995 '10th Anniversary American Eagle Five Coin Set". In

1995, regular proof Silver Eagles were minted at the Philadelphia

facility and inscribed with a 'P' mint mark. Another striking example

(sorry for the pun again) is the 'Reverse Proof Silver Eagle' coin

minted at Philadelphia as part of a 3-coin set to celebrate the 20th

anniversary of the American Silver Eagle program in 2006 - it features

a frosted background and mirrored raised surfaces, the opposite of a

typical proof coin.

Genealogy

Not all versions of the Silver Eagle were produced every year since the

inception of the program in 1986 - with the exception of the bullion.

However, its mint source has changed during its history from San

Francisco (1986-1998) to Philadelphia and West Point (1999-2000) and to

West Point only (2001 to present) - these changes are transparent,

however, since bullion Silver Eagle coins bear no mint mark.

Proof Silver Eagles have been produced almost every year - the

exceptions being 2009 to the present (June, 2010). Production was

heavily allocated in 2008 and was suspended entirely in 2009 after the

economic downturn created an unprecedented demand for bullion as a

hedge against inflation. It is still not certain whether there will be

any production in 2010. Production of proof Silver Eagles started at

the San Francisco Mint and continued until 1992 with the inscribed 'S'

mint mark. From 1993 until 2000, they were minted at Philadelphia and

inscribed with the 'P' mint mark. The West Point Mint took over

production with their 'W' mint mark in 2001-2008.

Uncirculated Silver Eagles have had a short history. They were minted

with the 'W' mint mark at West Point from 2006-2008. Production was

discontinued thereafter because of the same bullion coin priority for

silver blanks as suffered by proof coins and dictated by the legal

requirement to meet the unprecedented bullion demand.

Dress Up

Although packaging is not really part of the anatomy of the Silver

Eagle, it does really embellish them in a fashion. Bullion coins are

packaged and shipped in bulk to select authorized purchasers in

appropriately labelled green plastic 'monster boxes' - each box

contains twenty-five 20-coin plastic tubes, making 500 coins in total.

These bullion coins are available to the public through distributers

associated with the authorized purchasers.

Silver Eagle proof, uncirculated and special issues are all available

directly from the US Mint subject to availability. The proof and

uncirculated coins for the most part are packaged individually in a

protective plastic capsule mounted in a satin-lined, velvet-covered

presentation case and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity -

the exception here was the 2006 uncirculated coin capsule which was

housed in a velvet drawstring bag instead of the presentation case.

Chemistry and Stature

To complete our anatomy 101 lesson on the American Silver Eagle, there

are some other important properties that should be mentioned as follows

(they are the same for all variations of the Silver Eagle coin noted

above):

Mass: 31.103 g (1.00 troy oz)
Diameter: 40.6 mm (1.598 in)
Thickness: 2.98 mm (0.1193 in)
Composition: 99.9% Ag and 00.1% Cu

QED - American Silver Eagle Anatomy 101

If you are interested in collecting or investing in the American Silver

Eagle or just want to become more enlightened, drop by my blog at:

AmericanSilverEagleCoins.org

I am very busy there building up a repository of interesting articles

and references to guide you along. Enjoy the tour!

Tim MacKenzie is a Professional Engineer in Ontario, Canada. He spent

many years in scientific research and building information systems. His

focus now is on Internet communications.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Tim_MacKenzie

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4468333

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