Historical U.S. Mint issue prices for Uncirculated SAEs?

DBSTrader2

Out of curiosity, does anyone know where I can find a list of what the U.S. Mint charged each year since 1986 for their standard, non-mintmarked UNCIRCULATED (vs "proof" or "burnished", etc) SAE's?

Or, if not all years, maybe at least the ones from 1986, 1987, 1988, & 1993?

As a follow-up question, I'm looking on the Mint's website now at the 2016 & 2017 ASE's, and it only shows prices for the UNC & Proof versions (approx $44 & $53, respectively) from the West Point ("w") Mint facility. Why don't I see any non-mintmarked ones listed (priced closer to $20 or less) for these years on that website? Am I missing something, or are they all sold out & thus dropped from their website as a result?

Thanks!

ldhair

You are right. They drop off. They also did not sell every year by itself. You had to buy the mint set.

Night Hawk

If I am not mistaken, the US Mint never sold the bullion version of the silver eagles through the mint website but sold only to a few Authorized Distributors for a fixed price over the spot price of silver. These Authorized Distributors then sold to other distributors and the public. As you indicated, the US Mint started selling the uncirculated version of the ASE in 2006 for $19.95 each but these have the "W" mint mark.

I scanned through one of the historical Mint reports from 2001 (earliest year available on the Mint's website) and the report mentions total mintage but not cost. Perhaps one of the folks on the "Precious Metals" forum might have more info.

Night Hawk

BillDugan1959

OP is missing that NO uncirculated silver eagles of any kind were sold directly by the Mint for very many years. The Mint sold unc. ASE to its "Primary dealers" network only. Other dealers and some of the general public bought from the qualified primaries.

The original pricing scheme to the primary dealers was something like "spot" plus $1.40 (premium) plus $1.00 for the "face value". Honestly, it was something like this. It was not sane. Then you had to give the primary dealers their mark-up too, and a three dollar total premium was often encountered.

Nevertheless, despite the absurd mark-up scheme, I remember buying some new ASE for less than $9 each in the early 1990s. Maybe even close to $8. Memory is fleeting (I am doing the Time Warp!).

The 1986 dated pieces were always a bit special, price wise. I think minting began rather late in the year. 1987 was the year when prices got more competitive.

derryb

Mint does not publicize the price it's limited number of authorized purchasers pay for the bullion American Eagles. It is rumored to currently be somewhere around $2-$2.50 over spot. You and I cannot and never could by the non-mintmark bullion eagles directly from the mint. We can only by collector versions from the mint.

DBSTrader2

Thanks for all the replies above! I have the 4 earlier years listed above, but it sure beats me how and when I actually bought them, since I don't recall going thru anyone but the Mint over the years (and didn't get them off eBay, etc). I think I remember seeing (and maybe taking advantage of) deals for them "at their cost" (which must have been thru those "authorized dealers") anywhere between $9.95 and $14.95 and $17.95, but never wrote down my actual purchase price on any of them......... Guess that comes from being a collector with no intentions of reselling....

ricko

I stuck mainly with the proof ASE's in the beginning... then later built a set of the uncircs....from various sources. Do not recall pricing, but it was not remarkable. Then I lost interest when they skipped a year...Cheers, RickO

BigA

In the early days I used to buy rolls of 20 from my bank

DrBuster

I still have a roll that I paid $110 for shipped from the bay.

19Lyds

I bought 5 1986 SAE's from a Coin dealer in Albuquerque on the day they were released and paid $7.50 for each SAE. It was a it much but then, demand for this particular coin was very high as it represented the 1st time that Weinman's Walking Liberty Design would grace a "coin" in 39 years. Walkers, at the time, were extremely popular and this one would be much larger than what appears on the Half Dollar.

Surprisingly, those coins have held their value which was quite a bit over and above the price of silver.

I think I paid as little as $5.00 each in subsequent years upto $10.00 each.

When Silver went NUTS in 2011, those $5 and $10 days were long gone.

johnny9434

@BigA said:
In the early days I used to buy rolls of 20 from my bank

way cool, i like