Owner Comments:
Mintage 5,393,005
Minted at San Francisco, Denver and West Point without mintmark
My example of this beautiful coin is magnificent !! It has a satiny finish and is blast white ! Although milk spotting is occasionally seen on American Silver Eagles, as in other .999 oz. silver coins and more commonly on Eagles from the 1990s, there is not a single spot, hit blemish or any other defect seen on this MS-70 beauty.
Numismatic News: Historically speaking, in the first year of issue, a new coin will grab the attention of collectors and the general public. The American Silver Eagle was no exception. Ranked #83 in the third edition of "100 Greatest U.S. Modern Coins" by Schechter and Garrett, calling it "the coin that started it all".
The first silver eagle was only put on sale during the last weeks of 1986 in late November and into December. It took over 5 million coins to satisfy demand ! All Mints including West Point, San Francisco and Denver churned out furious numbers of coins to meet this demand. No mintmarks were used to distinguish their sources although some Eagles were authenticated as "First Strike" during a ceremony presided over by the then Secretary of the Treasury James Baker.
In the summer of 1986 the ANA added numbers to it's official grading standards (which previously only consisted of text descriptions). The numbers included 11 Mint State increments from low-end MS-60 to perfect MS-70. 1986 also saw the emergence of the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) as a third-party grading service.
The 1986 average silver price ended at $5.47/ounce.