Hopefully one of you guys can teach me a little bit about these two coins that I picked up. Everything I'm finding on the internet says that these 2 coins should have the S mint mark, but they do not. How does PCGS know that these coins were struck in San Francisco ? In 2011 to my understanding the only Eagles minted were the normal bullion, 2011 W Uncirculated , W Proof, The S-Mint marked coin and the coveted P reverse Proof. The only Picture I have right now does not show the back of the coins but I assure you that there is no S mint mark on them. Please help me understand what I am missing. Thanks in advance
Bullion ASE's were minted in San Francisco without any mint mark but shipped to bullion dealers in what is called Green Monster boxes labeled San Francisco.
Dealers send whole green boxes with the SF mint seal, that's how they know it's S mint even without a mint mark.
Hence the 2011-(S) notation on the slab label. They do they same treatment with the Missing Edge Lettering Presidential and Sacagawea Dollar except the entire date is in parentheses such as (2007) George Washington, etc.
Do you own a current Red Book? If not, it would be extremely beneficial if you obtained one. The Red Book states that silver eagles were struck at San Francisco and West Point without mint marks. Since no mint marks were put on 2011 or later Uncirculated silver eagles there obviously is no way to tell whether it was struck at San Francisco or West Point once it is out of its original government packaging. Only if the coins were sent in to a TPG in the Mint sealed monster boxes would one actually know where they were struck. Perhaps it is that the difference in production of silver eagles was so far apart the Mint did not want to create instant rarities.
