I have a few American Silver Eagle coins and I just barely found out that only one of mine has a "W" on it. Anyways, it's the dollar I bought in the attached set. Anyways, here's my question. Are these burnished or West Point ASE's only available when buying this set? Anything else I should know about?
I believe they were also available singly from the mint as well. I can't be positive because I don't collect these modern pieces so I don't order them myself .
The burnished dye type '06 through '08 are the ones with the W mint mark and are available to be purchased directly from the mint. The bullion type ASE are not sold directly to the public.
As far as we know, all ASE's are made at West point but only the burnished ASE's carry the W mint mark. The bullion versions are made at West Point as well but other mints can help out if they get behind in production. However none of the bullion ASE's carry a mint mark so you never really know for sure where your coin was made but it was most likley West Point.
Is the design of the 2006-2008 burnished SAE's any different than previous ones? Iguess the " W" West Point MM adds value to the SAE, correct?
You are comparing to seperate series. The 06-08 burnished series is a 3 coin issue (so far) They run parallel to the bullion issued coins. There are no "previous" ones. The W mintmark does add some value as it identifies the coin as having a much lower mintage than the bullion coin. The lower mintage actually adds the percieved increased value. There is actually 1 more coin in the series that is a little different. There is a 2008 W coin with the 2007 reverse. They changed the typeface a bit. It's an oddity, somewhat more rare with maybe 45,000 made and commands several hundred dollars. So it's up to you whether you consider it a 3 or 4 coin series.
Personally, I don't consider these to be in a separate series anymore than I would consider a 1971-D Lincoln to be in a separate series than the 1971 Lincoln. It would technically be a different "variety" of the SAE. Sure you can separate them out such as the Proof and Business Strike coins are but the series doesn't change. To answer the question, no the designs are not different other than the existance of the mintmark. The US Mint says that they are produced from "burnished" blanks but I've not seen any real significance from the "burnished" coins to the bullion coins.
Yes, I don't really notice a difference either except in price!! It may be cheaper for me to keep my eyes open for the 2006 & 2007 sets.
Personally, I consider this a separate series for these reasons: 1) It's minted on burninshed planchets. It's ok if the difference isn't noticable to the casual collector. Some are more distinquishable than others. 2) It was sold by the U.S. Mint as a "collector" version of the bullion coin. 3) The bullion coin, while similar in design is not sold individually by the U.S. Mint. It's sold in 500 count green monster boxes to bullion distributors. 4) The coin is limited in it's mintage and not minted to demand. Some might refer to this as a "subset" of the ASE series and that would be correct. The 1971/1971-D comparison is an example of minting the same coin at two different locations but neither coin was minted for the collector market so it really doesn't relate to the ASE situation.
Is anyone other than myself going to answer his original question or was my answer correct? The difference isn't noticeable because the bullion coins are struck on burnished planchets as well. All planchets have to be burnished after annealing to remove the scale and oxides that form on them. Such as the 1999 P proof SBA were a collector version of the 1999 P SBA. And the 1999 P SBA wasn't sold individually but was shipped out in 2000 coin bags. The 1999 P SBA also had a limited mintage. I guess this means the 1999 P SBA is a separate series as well.
Yes, your answer to the OP's question was spot on! Great job! Your hypothesis that "the 1999 P SBA is a separate series as well" is flawed. Proofs are inherently collector coins. We aren't talking about ASE proof issues.
The 2008-W was available as a single coin purchase from the US Mint for $27.95 plus $4.95 shipping. These were released around the end of March in 08 and is where where the 2008-W Rev of 07 was discovered. Folks ordered the OP's set hoping that some Rev of 07 coins might have made it into the packaging but to date, none have been reported. As a matter of record, 46,318 reverse of 2007 coins were produced. That figure comes from a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by a collector on the PCGS forums. Sorry.
2008w ASE - 525,118 composed of single 08w unc ASE - 389,702 six pieces uncirculated set - 88,416 2008w/7 - 47,000 - est.
The "W" mint mark makes it a different coin. It is like saying you have a complete set of coins and only have the "P" mint marked ones.
