Owner Comments:
On August 21, 2006, the U.S. Mint announced the 20th Anniversary Eagle Sets—special collector editions being sold to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the American Eagle Bullion Program. One of the options was a three-piece silver coin set, including a Proof coin, an uncirculated coin, and a Reverse Proof coin. The announcement described the Reverse Proof coins as featuring “a unique finish which results in a frosted field, or background, and a brilliant, mirror-like finish on the raised elements of the coin, including the design and inscriptions.” It’s difficult to imagine exactly the environment into which this coin was released. Silver had roughly doubled in price, from $6 to $12 an ounce, in the two years leading up to this coin’s release. There was a tremendous baseline of interest in the silver eagle generally. Add to that articles in the numismatic press and blogosphere, which were intimating that the Reverse Proof would be a successful coin—not only would it be the only Reverse Proof in the silver eagle series, but its mintage would be limited to 250,000. With the exception of the Proof 1995-W (ranked at no. 4), this would be far and away the lowest-mintage silver eagle; the next closest was the Proof 1994-P silver eagle, with a mintage of 372,168. Also in 2006, more-advanced and intricate finishes were appearing on foreign issues of silver and gold bullion coins. Mints in Australia, Canada, China, and Great Britain were all producing precious-metal Reverse Proof coinage for collectors (as well as holographic coins and privy-marked, limited-edition coinages). The U.S. Mint had, in prior years, used the Reverse Proof finish: platinum eagle bullion issues from 1997 through 2000 were struck with frosted fields and mirror-like devices. Nonetheless, in the context of 2006 and the silver eagle series, this felt like a very unique American silver coin, and the only way to get it was as part of the three-coin set. Few collectors were willing to miss the opportunity. To defend against speculators, the U.S. Mint set an order limit of 10 sets per household. The issue price of the set was $100. A flood of orders began at noon on Wednesday, August 30, and the flurry of activity slowed the Mint’s website to a halt. The Mint’s toll-free order hotline reached a continuous busy signal. Devoted collectors, dealers, and speculators spent furious hours trying to complete their orders. After the maddening rush of orders, collectors waited two months before Reverse Proof silver eagles began to ship in earnest from the Mint. Those who received their coins in early October were already able to double their money and resell the sets for $200.
Garrett, Jeff; Schechter, Scott; Bressett, Kenneth; Bowers, Q. David (2011-03-04). 100 Greatest US Modern Coins (Kindle Locations 1002-1023). Whitman Publishing. Kindle Edition.