Posted By CoinLink On May 24, 2010 @ 12:03 pm In Gold & Silver Bullion, Press Releases, US Coins, US Mint | No Comments

The U.S. Mint has confirmed that it plans to release five-ounce .999 fine silver bullion coins later this year in accordance with the AMERICA’S BEAUTIFUL NATIONAL PARKS QUARTER DOLLAR COIN ACT OF 2008 . The coins will be the first five-ounce coins ever produced by the Mint.

            The coins will bear the same designs as the new legal-tender quarters of the America the Beautiful Quarters Program. The first quarter in the program, honoring Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, was released into the banking system April 19, 2010. Four more quarters will be released this year, with five quarters being released annually through 2021, concluding with the final quarter in 2022. The new quarters will commemorate 56 national parks and sites.

The Mint’s America the Beautiful Program will be well received as will be the companion five-ounce silver bullion coins. The America the Beautiful Quarters Program follows on the heels the U.S. Mint’s hugely successful State Quarters Program, which only recently concluded. The five-ounce coins will be sold via the U.S. Mint’s distribution system that has made American Eagle gold bullion coins and American Eagle silver bullion coins the best-selling gold and silver bullion coins in the world.

The five-ounce silver bullion coins will be near exact replicas of the legal-tender quarter dollars, with the inscriptions on the silver bullion coins identical to those on the quarters, including the denomination “quarter dollar.” However, legal-tender quarters will have milled edges (Also called reeded edges in the coin industry.) The five-ounce coins will not have milled edges but will have their fineness (.999) and their weighs (five troy ounces) incused as edge lettering. The individual coins will be three inches in diameter.

The Mint has not given a release date for the five-ounce coins beyond “mid-year.” Nor has the Mint disclosed how the coins will be packaged. The Mint ships its one-ounce Gold Eagle coins and one-ounce Silver Eagle coins five hundred to a box, twenty-five tubes, twenty coins to a tube. This packaging method has worked extremely well, both for shipping and for protecting the coins against damage during shipment and while stored by investors. It is likely that the Mint will package the coins five or ten to a tube, five hundred ounces (100 coins) to a box, which would weigh right at forty-two pounds.

Finally, the Mint has given no hint as to the premium at which it will sell the new five-ounces silver coins. It is likely that the America the Beautiful silver bullion coins will carry smaller premiums than the premiums on 1-oz Silver.

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