American Silver Eagle Two Coin Set from San Francisco Priced at $149.95

The 2012 American Silver Eagle Two Coin Set from San Francisco is scheduled to be released next week on June 7, 2012. Information about the two coin set first appeared last month, but at the time pricing for it was not known.

This information is now available thanks to a pricing notice issued today in the National Archives which will also appear tomorrow in the Federal Register. According to the notice, the U.S. Mint’s 2012 American Eagle San Francisco Two-Coin Silver Proof Set will make its debut at $149.95.

Included as part of this set are two American Silver Eagle coins struck at the U.S. Mint’s facility in San Francisco and thus bearing the appropriate ‘S’ mintmark. The two coins are a 2012-S Reverse Proof American Silver Eagle and a 2012-S Proof American Silver Eagle.

It is anticipated that these two coins will be unique to this set and not offered individually or as part of any other sets. However, it should be noted that this has not yet been confirmed by officials from the U.S. Mint.

Marking a change of procedure from past similar releases, the U.S. Mint has not established a mintage cap for the San Francisco set. Instead, it will be sold for four weeks running from June 7, 2012 though July 5, 2012. All valid orders received by the Mint during this period will be fulfilled with the final mintage determined by the number of orders.

This change is in response to problems experienced during past product releases. An example is last year’s 25th Anniversary American Silver Eagle Set, of which 100,000 were available. Buyers slammed the Mint’s ordering system in the first few hours in an attempt to secure an order, crashing the bureau’s online store for a time in the process. Some collectors were unable to get in an order before they sold out.

While the four-week ordering guarantee and the lack of an initial mintage cap will alleviate these issues, it will also have its consequences. One is the possibility of a sizeable mintage that could make the two coins somewhat "common" which would also cut into their value.

Pricing of this set will cause some collectors to pause and complain. At $149.95, the two coin set equates out to $75 per coin. In comparison, the standard 2012-W Proof American Silver Eagle is currently being sold for $59.95. Further, silver prices were under $28 an ounce on Thursday, making the premiums for each of the two coins a rather stout $47.

When issued, the 2012 Silver Eagle San Francisco Two Coin Proof Set may be purchased directly from the U.S. Mint via its online store at catalog.usmint.gov/.