I may have found the variety marker for 'S' silver eagles

I don't have many silver eagle samples but I think I found a difference between regular eagles (no mint-mark bullion) and 2011-S eagles (from the 25th anniversary set) and the bullion from the 25th anniversary set (suspected to be from San Francisco mint). The coin community will have to check their eagle from various years to verify. The question is whether only 2011-S and 2011(S) have these markings. The markings are in the pictures below. The pictures in order are 2006, 2010, 2011 from anniversary set, 2011-S from anniversary set, and 2011-W from anniversary set.



The pictures were taken with a hand-held USB microscope. One needs a 5x loupe to see the difference. The markers are horizontal notches on the tail feathers that can only be seen in the 2011-S and (presumably) 2011(S).

Comments and other findings welcome.

 

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I'm not quite sure what i'm looking for... can you explain it more?

 

This is a quick hand drawing:

 

Think I can verify what you're seeing. There is a definite impression at the bottom of the center tail feather on the 25th Anniversary ASE "Bullion" coin that is not present on a real "Bullion" coin pulled from a monster box. These images were taken at 20X with a Celestron microscope.

 

That's pretty neat.

 

There's a large picture on this linked thread from PCGS/Collector's Universe (scroll down a bit):
http://forums.collectors.com/messageview.cfm?catid=26&threadid=836602&STARTPAGE=7

Seeing the indentation in an online photo requires the right lighting and sufficient size.

(The pictures in the other forum are not mine. I don't have a login there [yet]. I was referring to the large pictures of a whole coin [bullion from the anniversary set]. I see that YoYoSpin also posted his magnified pictures in that thread. Thanks for mentioning my forum name there.)

 

I checked my 2011 struck at san francisco silver eagle I purchased earlier in the year and it does not have the hash mark on the middle tail feather. Its also much more shiny in appearance, like most of my other bullion coins.

I checked the bullion coin in the 25th anniversary set and its much more satin-y in appearance and does have the hash mark on the tail feather. I thought when I first saw my set that the bullion coin did have a satin finish to it, but dismissed it as my eyes just playing tricks on me. It'll be interesting to see if this was a mistake by the mint for all the bullions in the set, or just a few thousand. Of course if say this only happened in half the sets or less could be an interesting variety/mistake. It'll certainly make those that sold early kick themselves.

 

My Pics of "Notched Tailfeather"

Here's my closeups of the so-called "notched Tailfeather", as found on a PCGS MS69 "Struck in SF" No mint mark 2011 Eagle.Very crisp notches, compared to my other NO-S Eagles, and S-Mint Eagles I looked at in my 4 sets...basically, it was broken down like this from my sets:No-S Eagle...2 have notches, 2 are questionable, or, noneS-Mint Eagles...3..Yes...1 no..

 

Big news! The tail feather marker made the news! Congratulations SilverHaired and Statequarterguy it also appears they used YoYoSpin's picture.

http://www.numismaticnews.net/article/tail-feather-mark-found

 

interesting how the top tilde ~ looks different in the top pic.

 

Wow, good eye!

I also noticed on the very first picture of this thread, that the "dash" between 'silver' and 'one' is a bit different. Is that normal?

Any thoughts on that?

 

I have one of the 2011 bullion strikes with that horizontal vertical notch, so I doubt thats a very reliable indicator. If I can I'll try to get a pic of it.
Guy
Not the best pics because they are from a cell phone, but the notches are visible. This, ,like I mentioned, is a standard 2011 bullion strike, no mintmark. I suppose this means the regular bullion pieces could be struck at the SF mint, as I believe some were, but without knowing what a Philly strike looks like in comparison it's hard to say which is which. Hopefully this study continues as I'm rather curious now and I'm not much of an ASE person (the one pictured is one I bought as a birthyear set for my niece).

 

The first picture is of a 2006 specimen, while the second is of a 2010 specimen. I believe between 2007 and 2008 the mint changed fonts. Note that the letters O and E look different between the two years also.

 

Current bullion silver eagles come from monster boxes marked San Francisco or West Point (not Philly). I'm assuming you're not sure which monster box your specimens came from (so it may be San Fran).

 

2011 bullion coins from San Francisco do not have a mint mark. The only way to tell that they are from San Fran (S) is that the monster box straps are marked "SF". So, if you pull a 2011 out of a "SF" marked monster box, you should not see the middle tail feather "dent" marker...if the theory holds true.

 

I was unable (through no fault of my own) to obtain the 25th Anniversary ASE set. Could someone please send me one so I can play along? ...or one of the aforementioned "Monster" boxes (preferably one from each mint). I'll gladly pay for shipping if it's not too much. Thanks in advance!

 

If it helps, I checked the few ASE's I have (all non-proof, no mintmark):

1990: No dent
1997: No dent
2002: Slightly damaged, but looks like no dent
2013: Dent, visible without magnification

EDIT: Wow, this is an old thread!

 

ive got so many eagles it isn't funny