2011 Proof Platinum Eagle Designs

The United States Mint has provided details of the upcoming 2011 Proof Platinum Eagle, including the selected reverse design and mintage limit.

The reverse design features the image of a harvest goddess to represent the theme “To Insure Domestic Tranquility”. She emerges from a field of wheat, while holding a stalk of wheat in her left hand and extending her right hand to a landing dove. This was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill.

Out of the nine design candidates originally presented, this one seemed to gain the most praise from collectors. It was also the design selected by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, after their review. The Commission of Fine Arts had selected a design showing three hands grasping a laurel wreath. (You can view the nine original design candidates here.)

The maximum mintage for this year’s coin will be 15,000 units, which is a big increase from the previous years of the design series, which presents the core concepts of American democracy. The 2009 issue had a mintage of 8,000, while the 2010 issue had a mintage of 10,000. Both managed to sell out within approximately one week of offering.

If the price of platinum remains within the $1,750 to $1,849.99 range, then the one ounce coins would be priced at $2,092.00. The scheduled start of sales is May 26, 2011.

I will have another post on the 2011 Proof Platinum Eagle ahead of the release date.

America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Coins

Before the weekend, I wanted to summarize some of the latest information on the America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Coins. Some of the information was previously reported on Coin Update, but has not been presented within a Mint News Blog article.

The next bullion release of the series featuring Olympic National Park will go on sale to authorized purchasers starting on May 23, 2011. The previous 2011-dated bullion releases featuring Gettysburg National Military Park and Glacier National Park had gone on sale April 25. These two issues have now sold out of their initial quantities of 126,700 each.

The Olympic Five Ounce Silver Bullion coins will be available in an initial quantity of 126,700. As with other bullion releases this year, the US Mint’s authorized purchasers will be able to purchase them based on the market price of silver plus a markup of $9.75 per coin. After the APs receive the coins, they generally resell them to other bullion dealers, coin dealers, and in some cases directly to the public.

The Hot Springs Five Ounce Uncirculated Silver Coins officially sold out at the US Mint. This represented the first numismatic release for the series. The coins went on sale April 28 and moved to waiting list status on May 13. The waiting list was closed yesterday May 19. It took approximately two week for the US Mint to receive orders to cover the 27,000 mintage, and another week to close the waiting list.

Meanwhile, the Yellowstone Five Ounce Uncirculated Silver Coins, which went on sale May 17, had reached sales of 18,143 by the end of the first day of sales. This was a slightly slower pace than the prior release. The coins currently remain available for sale at the US Mint. I will have updated sales figures early next week.

Finally, some readers have reported that the US Mint’s phone representatives provided a release date of June 7, 2011 for the next numismatic release featuring Yosemite National Park. I have not been able to confirm this date yet, but phone representatives had previously provided an accurate release date for the Yellowstone coin, before the US Mint’s official announcement.

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