2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins Availability

The United States Mint today announced a release date for the long anticipated 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins. Along with that release date, the US Mint also indicated the maximum mintage for the strikes and, much to the delight of collectors, confirmed the production of a collector grade version of the series.

According to the press release issued today, the five ounce, three inch, .999 fine silver 2010 America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins™ will be available on December 6, 2010.

However, as with all bullion products of the US Mint, the coins will not be sold directly to the public by the US Mint. Instead, a network of Authorized Purchasers is used that obtains the coins in bulk, then resells them to the public — just like the bullion American Silver Eagles.

Each America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins will be sold at a cost based on the current market price of the silver contained within each piece, plus what the US Mint is describing as a “moderate premium to cover minting, distribution and marketing costs.” According to a different announcement sent to the Authorized Purchasers, this premium has been set at $9.75 per coin.

Mintage for Bullion Silver Coins

Maximum mintage on the inaugural five coins is much less than had previously been indicated. 165,000 silver bullion coins have been authorized for this year, spread evenly across all five issues. This equates to an individual maximum of only 33,000 per design. (See coin images.)

Concerns over that seemingly low mintage are somewhat allayed by the fact that the US Mint also announced that it will indeed strike numismatic uncirculated versions. The America the Beautiful Five Ounce Uncirculated Coins will be issued sometime in the first quarter of 2011. These will be sold directly to the public by the US Mint. Their productions has already started as the Mint is required by law to strike its numismatic releases in the same year for which they are dated.

Mintage for Collector Uncirculated Silver Coins

A slightly smaller total mintage of 135,000 uncirculated silver coins has been set for the collector America the Beautiful Silver Coins, or 27,000 per design. Adding it all together, the US Mint this year will strike up to 300,000 of the America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins — 165,000 bullion grade investment coins and 135,000 uncirculated collector coins.

America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins were authorized by the America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-456). The coins are identical in design to the circulating United States Mint America the Beautiful Quarters® Program. As such, the obverse of each piece will contain John Flanagan’s portrait of George Washington while the reverse will showcase a design emblematic of a site of national interest from around the United States.

One site was chosen from each state, the District of Columbia and the five US Territories for a total of fifty-six locations to be honored. The program is scheduled to run from 2010 through 2021.

Five new coins will be released annually. Those to be issued yet this year include the:

• 2010 Hot Springs Silver Coin,
• 2010 Yellowstone Silver Coin
• 2010 Yosemite Silver Coin
• 2010 Grand Canyon Silver Coin
• 2010 Mount Hood Silver Coin

The collector grade silver coins are being produced under the authority of 31 U.S.C. §5111(a) (3) which allows numismatic items to be produced and released at the discretion of the Treasury Secretary.