ATB Five Ounce Silver Coins

In that case, my price is a "kajillion bajillion" dollars.


I have mentioned before that I would sell the cardboard box I was living in before the coins...

I am certainly going to need to order one of these. I should have done it last week. Oh well!

Sometimes I feel better buying when spot is a little higher. Kind of justifies the premium. I know silly but I feel better at the time at least

Exactly! That's why I don't have number 10 yet.

It's a great design, I'll picking up my bullion pair later on today, they've been waiting at the PO for a couple days now. :)

Really wonder with the tiny release amounts of #11 to the APs (6,200 as of Monday), and if the Mint will even bother minting and issuing bullion in the other four designs for this year. I'll wager a bet that if they do, Volcanoes and Denali might bear some watching, as the mint to demand figure might be minuscule.

@barryg: is that dark line on your coin between the "y" and "u" really there or is it a camera trick? It looks to be a clean DMPL coin otherwise.

Oh well, picked up my bullion pair from APMEX, $19.95 to ship two pieces of bullion in a $5.95 flat rate box with a 70 cent tracking fee, talk about tacking on overhead. They were first with these so I went with them at $158.50 each. Here's a description of what I got: on the first coin I pulled out, looked completely clean, barest trace of mint bloom or hazing (last year a couple of coins I ordered mid-run were heavily hazed from mint bloom.) Looks to be an easy 68, not fully DMPL due to the slight hazy effect and there is some kind of irregularity on the rim at 12 o'clock, I can't tell if it's from the holder or actually on the coin, but I would assign this coin an MS68. PL is pushing it, some major mint-made slide marks.

The second coin is much more satisfying: minimal bloom, relatively clean rim and much cleaner mirrors on both sides. Probably didn't come from the same tube, almost as nice as the cleanest, whitest, sharpest ATB coin I have, a Chickasaw I bought from Provident. Could be a 69DMPL, definitely PL. My plan is to order these bullion coins as they are released by the Mint, before the AP has a chance to really cherry pick through ALL of the monster boxes, and before they become traded back and forth as PMs, diminishing their future numismatic value (if any) by repeated handing of the delicate easily damaged mirrors and surfaces.

I am a bit surprised, Provident quality is usually in the outstanding catagory. If I received that coin from from them, I *might* be tempted to return it for replacement, as you have seen, not all coins are equal coming out of the same tube, even though they are "only" bullion. It could be just a grease skid as it slid down the fabric conveyor belt and easily removed with a mild solvent.

I am beginning to lean towards the bullion series more as the lackluster slow sales of the collector coin can terminate the series at any time, whereas the bullion would need an overwrite by an act of Congress to be terminated. The bullion run stands a better chance of completion and might be the more difficult of the two ATB series to complete later on due to the varying quality of the bullion coins, and the ease with which the surfaces are marred and scuffed. The collector coin is made to a standard medallic finish, encapsulated and boxed, overpriced, that most collectors are content to keep them in their OGP for the long haul, so the bullion equivalent might be scarcer of the two, 10 years later. The cool thing about this year's ATB is the mint to demand provision, which people care about on the SF ASE set, but who cares about these, as "no one's" buying them anyway. The 2012 bullion might bring far lower mintages than even the collector coin, an instance of mint to demand may work on a ignored product line and benefitting collectors that had the foresight to buy these at the height of their unpopularity. Cannot wait for #12 Chaco Culture, hope it is going to be released soon!