American Silver Eagle (1986–2026)

The silver and the gold did not come from the same act. Title II of Public Law 99-61, signed on 9 July 1985 and known as the Liberty Coin Act, requires a silver coin of one troy ounce, .999 fine, with a Liberty design and an eagle. The face value is one dollar: it satisfies the statute. It does not measure the metal. The Gold Bullion Coin Act, Public Law 99-185, is later. On 17 December 1985 it authorizes the gold bullion coins, using gold from domestic mines.

On 1 October 1985 an executive order banned importation of the South African Krugerrand. The 1986 sanctions act confirmed that restriction. The gap in retail gold comes after the silver act, which was already signed in July. The 1986 program also includes the gold eagle. Platinum was first issued in 1997. Palladium was authorized in 2010 and first issued in 2017. This case is only the silver ounce.

The obverse returns to Adolph A. Weinman’s Walking Liberty, the half dollar of 1916 to 1947. Liberty strides toward the sun, wrapped in the flag. Her right arm is extended. Her left carries laurel and oak. In 2021, at the program’s 35th year, the Mint brought that obverse closer to Weinman’s model and added his artist’s mark, AAW. The earlier obverse does not carry it.

The reverse has two types, and 2021 struck both. Type 1, by John Mercanti, runs from 1986 to 2021: a heraldic eagle behind a shield, with an olive branch and a bundle of arrows. His initials, JM, are on the coin. Type 2 enters in mid-2021. Emily Damstra designed it and Michael Gaudioso sculpted it: an eagle coming in to land with an oak branch, as if to add it to a nest. The reverse legends remain UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM, 1 OZ. FINE SILVER, and ONE DOLLAR.

The bullion piece is struck for the metal market. It carries no mint mark, whether it comes from West Point, San Francisco, or Philadelphia. The Mint does not sell it in the public store: it leaves through the authorized-purchaser network. The proof is a collector coin. Polished dies strike the planchet more than once, and the coin bears a mint mark. The Mint’s current page describes the proof with a West Point W. In other years the mark has been S or P. The satin finish, which the trade calls burnished, was introduced in 2006, usually bears a W, and is not struck every year. Some years add an enhanced uncirculated or a reverse proof. Each coin’s record will name the finish and the mark that piece actually carries.

The Mint publishes more than 500 million troy ounces sold since 1986. That figure is the Mint’s. It is not a count of this collection, and this page does not publish premiums or over-the-counter prices.

Bullion leaves in a green box of 500 pieces: 25 tubes of 20. Because the planchet has no mint mark, the house that struck it is not on the metal. Grading services have reconstructed it when the box arrives still sealed and the strap number identifies the origin. If the seal is opened first, that reading is gone. A slab that says “struck at Philadelphia” documents the box, not a letter on the coin.

In 2015, when West Point was short of planchets, part of the bullion striking came from Philadelphia. Those pieces have no mint mark. In April 2020 West Point paused, and Philadelphia struck investment ounces so the supply would not stop. They have no mint mark either. Published counts of those two runs do not agree, so this page does not fix a mintage. If a piece comes from one of those boxes, its record will say what the slab attributes and what cannot be read on the edge.