Silver Eagle Coins - A Few Fun Facts And Figures You Want To Understand
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Silver ingots and bars are what everyone associates with early trading practices, but we tend to overlook the fact the gold and silver eagle coins were also used for trading. In the larger economy, silver and gold bars are used to trade investments, but now a more popular trading item comes in the form of bullion coins made of precious metals. One such coin is the silver eagle coin of the United States.
Silver eagle coins are only available in one size and that is the coin with one troy ounce of silver in it. Guaranteed by the US Mint to have up to 99.9 percent of silver in it, it's face value is roughly one US dollar, although it is probably worth more than that. The dimensions of this coin are 1.98 mm in thickness, 40.6 mm in diameter and 31.103 gm in weight. The United State Mint officially released this particular coin in 1986 on November 24 to be exact.
There are only three mints in the United States that manufacture the American silver eagle coin and they are the Philadelphia, San Francisco, and West Point Mints. Coins have two faces, the obverse and reverse, or more commonly, the head and tail.
For silver eagle coins, the obverse was designed in 1916 by Adolph Weinman and the icon shown is famously known as "Walking Liberty". Since this design was very popular, the US Mint decided to use the same image in contemporary silver coins. The reverse shows a heraldic eagle with 13 stars and this icon was designed by John Mercanti in 1986. The design of the reverse side of the coin is a variation of the Seal of the United States.
When the first silver American eagle coin was made or "struck" in 1986, the former Secretary of the Treasury, James Baker attended the ceremonies. With the silver coin as legal tender, today's coins that are made in West Point are specially made to prevent any mint marks from being present on the bullion coins.
Coin collectors usually can distinguish where a coin was made by looking at the letter on the coin that is printed to trace its origins. With the letters "W", "P" and "S" put on the coins, one can tell that they were made in West Point, Philadelphia, and San Francisco, respectively.
The distribution of the US silver coin is part of a modern allocation program. This is due to inflation wherein the present economic crisis has caused silver eagle coins to be appropriately rationed to hedge against inflation.
Article Source: Articlelogy.com
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