By CoinWeek Staff Reports …..
In a final bow to collectors, former United States Mint Deputy Director Rhett Jeppson authorized the production of American Silver Eagle Proof coins at the San Francisco Mint.
The coins, which bear the “S” mintmark, differ from the regular issue Proof coins that are being struck this year at the West Point Mint. The regular issue Proofs bear the “W” mintmark and are available for sale for $53.95 USD. There is no product limit to the West Point Mint-struck issues.
Contrast that to the 2017 Congratulations Set coins, which went on sale at 12PM today and immediately sold through the product limit of 75,000 coins.
Whether one feels that the U.S. Mint’s asking price for American Silver Eagle Proof coins is fair or not, there’s little room for argument that the $1.00 premium for this S-Mint product is more than reasonable for a coin that will almost immediately be worth more than issue price in the secondary market.
CoinWeek’s call into Michael White at the Office of Corporate Communications at the United States Mint confirmed that the U.S. Mint would no longer accept orders for the Congratulations Set until all current orders are processed. The potential exists that some small number of orders might be canceled and that the product reserved for unfilled orders would be made available again at a future date.
Industry insiders told CoinWeek before the launch, that tremendous demand for the coin would exist in the primary and secondary markets and that a number of prominent dealers would make markets in the S-Mint Proof. Last week, PCGS announced that it would offer a special “Congratulations Set” pedigree to the set. This morning, NGC announced that it would do the same, providing collectors and dealers submission instructions on its website.
Collectors that missed out on this offering should note that the U.S. Mint plans to release a 2017 Limited Edition Silver Proof Set later in the year. That set will also include the “S” mint American Silver Eagle Proof.
American Silver Eagle Proof Coins Currently Available on eBay
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What your article does not say is that by not limiting purchases to one or two coins all the coins went to high volume dealers, much like scalpers with concert tickets. They immediately showed up on eBay at 3.5 to 4x the Mint price. Collectors were almost completely shut out of the event. Horrible execution on the part of the Mint.