New 2017 American Liberty Silver Medals Unveiled at the Whitman Baltimore Expo
Dentuck
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On Wednesday, March 29, the United States Mint announced that it will begin selling its 2017-dated American Liberty $100 gold coin on April 6.
The next day, Thursday, March 30, the Mint unveiled a beautiful new set of silver medals based on the designs of the gold coin. The medals were unveiled in a revolving turntable display in the Mint’s impressive exhibit at the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Expo, held in the Baltimore Convention Center.
Each of the .999 fine silver medals will be struck at a different mint facility—Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, or West Point—and each sports a distinctive ...read more
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Very low mintage on the silver.
Thanks for the info, Dennis.
Mintage has not been announced.
The mintage of 12,500 was for each of the American Liberty medals released last year (12,500 for Philly and 12,500 for West Point). I imagine they'll increase the limits for the 2017 medals.
Considering how the mint has reacted to low-mintage, high-demand items in the past, we'll see what, 75-100K?
I hope the medal in hand looks better than the photos...
Collectors will remember the excitement when the Mint’s first issue of American Liberty silver medals rolled out on August 23, 2016. Demand was so strong that the one-ounce, .999 fine medals sold out in six minutes. Mintage of those medals (all in Proof format) was capped at 12,500 from West Point and 12,500 from Philadelphia, with customers limited to ordering two of each per household, at $34.95 apiece. low mintage for the silver is a good thing. the article says it sold out quick
The US Mint is the worst run business ever.
Yep. To the level of non-selling out.
God, I wish I was employed from cradle to grave by the Mint!
I would be a buyer with low mintage numbers, but not high.
LOL! I apologize for the bad photos. That display was revolving!
HAhahaha... I wasn't criticizing your photography. The medals look flat. I may be biased since I don't like the gold version either.
Ansel Adams could have taken the photo, and I'd still have made the same statement,..
It's unfortunate that they weren't able to do the medals in high relief, like the gold coin. But that was on the Mint's radar last year --- they knew it wouldn't be possible. The diameter of the gold coin is 30.6 millimeters (the size of a half dollar), and the diameter of the silver medals is larger, American Silver Eagle size (40.6 mm). The bigger planchet lowers the depth.
April Stafford, the Mint's design manager, briefed us on the depths of the coins and medals in our March 2016 CCAC meeting. "In order to maximize the coin's potential height of relief, please consider the following: if a preferred design is weighted to one side of the composition it is best paired with one that is weighted on the opposite side such as left/right pairings. Similarly, horizontally oriented designs will pair well with vertically oriented designs on the other side. And this is, of course, for the coin that will be in high relief. Designs that take full advantage of the high relief format tend to feature elements that are thicker and centrally located. Their borders will terminate away from the center of the planchet. On the other hand, designs whose primary elements are narrow or contain small gaps of negative space will likely cause limitations in relief height."
The Mint folks know their stuff. Sculptor-engraver Don Everhart, who has decades of hands-on experience, comes to most CCAC meetings to advise from a technical standpoint, as does Ron Harrigal, who manages quality at the Mint. Other technicians weigh in on production-related questions, too.
(That said, the medals might not be high-relief, but they're not low-relief, either. I think you'll like them in person.)
They look really good! Count me in, no matter what mintage.
I tried to order the 2016 silver medals. Got online a few minutes before the "opening bell." Unfortunately the credit card I had saved in the Mint's ordering system had expired, so I lost precious minutes updating that information --- and by then both issues were sold out!
Man, the silver looks worse than the gold especially the silver proof. I'll reserve final judgment though until I see them in hand at the next long beach.
I'm pretty sure that's why the 2015 AmLib silver medal was cancelled. It was touted to be a high-relief medal, and it wasn't. The "high-relief" was dropped when they sold them in 2016.
I will point out that if they didn't use ASE blanks, they could have created a smaller diameter, thicker stock silver blank and do a true high-relief medal. I also understand the conditions under which the Mint can make silver medals, which means they have to use ASE blanks.
Now, this leads me to the point that if the Mint actually produced a .999 Silver Proof set, they could have sourced a silver blank the same size as the Kennedy but weighing one ounce, without having to expend a lot of resources. Hello Mint? Are you listening?
I hope they do a four piece set! That would be a really cool way to compare the finishes.