New at the Mint: 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals
August 23, 2016 By Dan Holmes 19 Comments
The U.S. Mint's is now accepting orders for the 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals, which are available for the price of $34.95 each. The two medals are being produced at the San Francisco Mint and West Point Mint, respectively, and are struck using one-ounce 99.9% silver planchets normally reserved for American Silver Eagles. They carry a Proof finish with a smooth edge, and measure 40.6 mm in diameter.
The medals carry the obverse and reverse designs originally created for the 2016 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin, released in July of last year. The obverse features a modern rendition of Liberty created by Justin Kunz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. LIBERTY and 2016 are inscribed in the medal's field.
The reverse carries an image of an eagle designed by Paul C. Balan and sculpted by Don Everhart. The mint mark appears in the field, while UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is inscribed along the rim of the medal.
An order limit of two units per household has been established for each piece.
As noted on Mint News Blog, each medal has been awarded a mintage limit of 12,500 pieces. As noted previously, the product pages for the items state that the product limit for each medal is 12,500 pieces, which differs from a press release that lists the mintage limits as 12,500 units. This is significant because a mintage limit represents an overall maximum for production, while a product limit of 12,500 pieces would potentially leave the door open for a higher mintage. Michael White of the Mint's Office of Corporate Communications has confirmed in an email that each medal has been given a mintage limit of 12,500 units.
The 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals will come packaged in velvet presentation cases with certificates of authenticity. For more information, please visit the Web site of the U.S. Mint.
Update: Both of the 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals went into "Currently Unavailable" status on the Mint's Web page within 10 minutes of their release. Michael White of the Mint's Office of Corporate Communications sent out a release stating that "the status of the American Liberty 2016 Silver Medal will remain as currently unavailable until all order reconciliations and order cancellations have been processed."
Filed Under: Coin Articles, Columns, Featured Articles, United States Mint, US Coins
Dwight says
Apparently all the of the American Liberty Silver Medals quickly sold out within 10 minutes.
Sam McCullough says
Who's playing the system? The Mint web site never opened up with this medal for sale at 12 noon ET. It went from a message saying they would go on sale – to at 12;09 A unavailable for sale at this time message.. Yet some how people on ebay have 20 or more sets of these medals when there was a limit of 2 per household. Oh ya at a very high price. Some one at the Mint needs to look into this problem. IT seems to me someone is making a lot of money with a few lines of code.
Why was the mintage so low?
Why submit months in advance to request to be reminded to buy if the mint isn't going to produce enough for the customer base to have a chance to procure?
Why bother with the US Mint anymore?
Can we sue the mint for not following their own public policy? (e.g., limit 2 per household)
I started refreshing the website at 11:59 EDT and except for a hiccup of having to re enter my credit card number I was able to order 2 of each. The trick is to be on the website at 11:59:59. I had to do the same with the mercury dime and high relief liberty gold. I am a collector and none of mine are going to be resold
I knew they would go fast, at 12, 9 my time, I fumbled around and almost missed out. But really, the mint blew it again.
Troy, who knows why the mint is so lame in what they do, but they really need to fire some of those meatheads that run the show. As far as why some of those guys get so many, is called back door sales. The baseball coin was also a big joke. But when you have our criminally run government running the show this is the result. I was lucky, but guys selling these coins for over 500 bucks for both is as bad as it gets.
The Mint Blew it? WTF? The Mint did GREAT! And needs to do more mintages this low!
We have enough made to order crap coming from the Mint every year…Lets keep some low mintage items rolling every year!
daniel wagner says
the mint really f this up.all the greed on ebay.these are going for five hundred no way wood i buy this coin four five hundred dollars.
William flick says
Looks like the new silver eagle with out a few things on it
" class="comment-author-link" rel="external nofollow" itemprop="url">David Todd says
No one did anything wrong including the mint. Listen to the arguments are silly. The coins went on sale, people bought and resold. Its called Life, get over it.
Alfredo M. says
Dealers pay off other people to purchase the maximum quantity and then resell them on eBay for example. That's how they are able to obtain more than the maximum of 2 each per household. I signed onto the Mint's website a few minutes before they went on sale knowing they might sell out quickly and completed my order in about 2 minutes.
Started my attempt at noon Alaska time inorder to partake in obtaining one. The site said, unavailable at 12:03 p.m. Alaska time. I thought, I got through but the system hick-up and it was over.
David Todd,
Your comment: "No one did anything wrong including the mint. Listen to the arguments are silly. The coins went on sale, people bought and resold. Its called Life, get over it."
Issue #1: With a limited edition coin, there is an unfair advantage to the dealers that obtain coins via pre-sale or "back-door" before the allotted amount is released for public consumption at retail prices. This falsely exaggerates "supply and demand", therefore the after market price robs the public via a removed opportunity. AS a reminder, the US Mint's mission is "…to serve the American people by manufacturing and distributing circulating, precious metal and collectible coins and national medals, and providing security over assets entrusted to us." I believe that this mission statement is being violated by doing a disservice to the public because the distribution method services businesses too much and not the individual.
Issue #2: Dealing with "life", not just "get over it", is making an argument that supports reasoning to have change brought to the current systematic presentation of how the US Mint creates and sells coins, bullion and medals. So, listening to the arguments is valid.
Troy, do you have any solutions?
I do. Hire people with common sense. To only produce 12500 and then only charge 35 bucks is just flat out bad business. If they charged 75bucks and produced 25000 the demand would still be there. Next fix is the back door sales, if caught they spend 10 years in the BIG HOUSE with all the other trash. Next fix hire HONEST people. There are a ton of educated idiots out there and the mint has more than there share.
Jess, you should contact the US mint directly with your solutions. Let us know what they say.
Alfredo. Those were just recommendations as you asked for. But if you think I am wrong, then how does MCM get enough of these coins to sell on their website???? This is NOT a few employees doing a favor for the boss.
Alfredo says
Jess, read my question above for Troy : "Do you have any solutions?" Then you wrote "I do……etc., etc." Addtionally, I never said you were wrong nor did I disagree with you. I believe you made some valid points and that you should bring them up directly with the US mint if you are serious about making changes to their current system.
How does this happen???? And some people say that their is no such thing as back door sales, only fools would believe that their isn't.
https://www.moderncoinmart.com/tags/2016-silver-american-liberty-medals/?link=liberty-medals&linkcat=homepage