Owner Comments:
Purchased raw from APMEX. How about an interesting blurb about the coin then?In 1996, legislators passed a minor amendment to section 5112 of Title 31, U.S. Code, which prescribes the legal requirements and specifications for all U.S. coinage. Added to the U.S. Code was the following, in full: “Secretary may mint and issue bullion and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time. : Provided, That the Secretary is authorized to use Government platinum reserves stockpiled at the United States Mint as working inventory and shall ensure that reserves utilized are replaced by the Mint.” With those two sentences, the American platinum eagle was created. First issued from 1997 until 2008, the bullion coin had a new design. The obverse, created by then–U.S. Mint sculptor and engraver John Mercanti, features a portrait of Liberty reworked from the Statue of Liberty in clean, modern lines. The reverse, conceived by U.S. Mint sculptor and engraver Thomas D. Rogers Sr., shows a composition named “Eagle Soaring Above America” and displays a gliding eagle with its wings fully outstretched above the sun’s rays. This same design is used on all bullion issues, while collector versions of the coins (Proof and Uncirculated issues) have a different design that changes each year. Like the American gold eagle, coins were available in one-ounce, 1/2-ounce, 1/4-ounce, and 1/10-ounce weights, but with a face value double that of their gold counterparts. This gave the one-ounce platinum coin a $100 face value, the highest of any U.S. coin ever issued. Also, like the other bullion issues, the coins were sold only though authorized distributors who, in turn, sold them to other dealers, investors, and collectors. The first few years of the platinum eagle showed banner sales: more than 50,000 one-ounce coins sold in the first and third years, and a mind-boggling 133,002 coins sold in year two, among the highest mintage figures for any platinum coin. Bullion sales declined steadily thereafter, reaching a nadir of only 6,000 examples of the 2006 $100 platinum eagle bullion one-ounce coin, the single-lowest mintage figure for any U.S. bullion coin ever issued. Why was there such a precipitous drop? One answer is that platinum increased in price, making these coins more expensive and therefore less obtainable by a broad spectrum of collectors. Throughout 2005, platinum flirted with the $1,000-per-ounce price level, but on January 9, 2006, it broke through and never looked back, spiking to more than $1,300 per ounce in May. More significantly, however, in 2006 the U.S. Mint issued the American Eagle Uncirculated Coins for collectors, and offered versions of these coins directly for sale to collectors. The Uncirculated coins have a different reverse design, as do the Proof issues. Only 3,068 of the 2006-W $100 platinum eagle Uncirculated coins were sold. Likely, this accounted for much of the collector demand for platinum and fewer units of the bullion counterpart were needed to meet the requirements of investors.
Garrett, Jeff; Schechter, Scott. 100 Greatest US Modern Coins (Kindle Locations 1569-1576). Ingram Distribution. Kindle Edition.