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It's the 25th Anniversary of the Silver Eagle program's beginning in 1986! This coin was issued as a part of the 25th Anniversary 5 Coin Silver Eagle Set (A25) that had a mintage of only 100,000! The Mint set the production level too low for the 25th Anniversary coins and they received complaints from the public and so did their Congressional representatives. The likely hood of a normal production Silver Eagle with a mintage less than 100,000 coins is small so the 2011-P is likely to remain a very strong key to the reverse proof Silver Eagle set and a second place semi key in the extended Silver Eagle proof set that contains proof and reverse proof issues. Not only has the Mint given this coin and its series a gift by producing such a low mintage silver dollar it has also blessed it with the prospect of being king of an ongoing reverse proof set. The Mint has clearly demonstrated its intention to continue producing reverse proof Silver Eagles from time to time and this opens the door to collecting complete reverse proof Silver Eagle sets as a cost effective alternative to the cameo proofs that include the costly 1995-W. Looking down the mintage listing of this major US series is instructive as shown below. Proof Silver Eagle Mintages: 1986....1,446,778 1987......904,732 1988......557,370 1989......617,694 1990......695,510 1991......511,924 1992......498,543 1993......405,913 1994......372,168 1995......407,822 1995-W....30,102 1996......498,293 1997......440,315 1998......450,728 1999......549,330 2000......600,743 2001......746,398 2002......647,342 2003......747,831 2004......801,602 2005......816,663 2006....1,092,475 2006RP...248,875 2007......821,759 2008......700,979 2010......849,861 2011......950,000 est 2011RP....99,9XX When trying to understand the behavior of series that have stable designs its helpful to look at the mintage and price of similar siblings. Notice that the 2006 reverse proof with its 248,875 mintage inhabits a price range close to that of a 2011 reverse proof with its most likely final mintage of just under 100,000 coins. The 2011RP is 2.5 times rarer than the 2006RP but the market prices of the coins do not reflect it. This behavior is directly attributable to the fact that the 2006RP has had five years to find stable homes while the 2011RP has not. Even good material takes about 4-10 years for dealer inventory levels to fully dissipate but once they do the cost of coming to the party late can be substantial. This is especially true of ultra high grade issues once the bulk of the population has already seen the graders at least once and fresh material stops flowing. For further coverage on Silver Eagles see the 25th Anniversary Set, 2011S Mint State Silver Eagle and the 2012S Two Coin Proof set listings.
PRICES AND AVAILABILITY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE RELATING TO CHANGING MARKETS AS WELL AS SUPPLY AND DEMAND. |