Platinum, Gold, Silver & Coins

Silver is gaining in 2009….I like Silver.

 Silver fell 24% in 2008, from reports I’ve read looks like silver will gain in the first quarter of  2009.  

Collecting silver bullion is a hobbie of mine, I love the American Eagle silver 1 ounce coins. The silver American Eagle 1 ounce  coin called the silver eagle by coin collectors is one the most appealing coins produced by the US Mint today. The obverse of the silver coin displays the Liberty Walking design by Adolph Weinman. This design was used on american half dollar coins  from 1916 to 1947.  The reverse of the coin is a version of the heraldic eagle by John Mercanti.

The silver american eagle series coins are produced annually by the United States Mint since 1986. Coin Weight 1 oz, diameter 40.6 mm,  .9993 silver,  .0007 copper; Minted at Philadelphia, San Francisco and West Point.

Up until 2006 you could only purchase the uncirculated version from a local coin dealer or bullion trader. In 2006 the US Mint released a special uncircalted version. These coins are hand loaded into the coin press and the coin blanks are custom polished. These coins are minted at West Point in upstate NY and carry the W mint mark.

1999 Silver Eagle picture below.

 Frantic Cry’s of a 38 year old male  “Drama Queen”

A friend of mine called the other night, his tone was loud his voice unstable, I could not make heads or tails of what his belligerent rantings were about.

Finally after about 2 minutes of this I interrupted…….Dude, you got to chill, now start from the beginning. He replied The United States Mint Ripped Me Off.

My friend had purchased a bag of presidential dollars from the US mint when he open the bag to cherry pick he could not find a single dollar above mint state 62.

I told him his first mistake was opening the bag, mint sewn bags are a novelty item and will hold more value unopened. I also told him that he would have better luck going to the local bank and asking them if they had any new bags or rolls of the newest presidential dollars, he would only have to pay face value and not the premium the mint charges.

The United State Mint bags and rolls are collector items and the coins that go into them are business struck, which means they go through a mass production process and get banged and slammed around going from conveyer to bins to bags.

If you want cherry mint state coins you need to buy the annual United States Mint uncirculated coin sets.