Reno32, as others have said, the banding on the monster box is how they knew it was minted in West Point.
For some years the "bullion" coins were produced at two different mints. The only way to prove it is for it to be taken from a sealed monster box at 3rd party grading service and put in a slab like you have. If you decide to collect silver eagles, then you'll need to decide whether you want to differentiate between the unmarked bullion coins produced at different mints or not. Personally, I don't because I take the point of view that if I can't tell the difference between two coins by looking at them, then that are the same. Condor101 already pointed this out, but I think it bears repeating. If you see a mint mark on a slab in parenthesis, then the 3rd party grading service is saying that bullion coin came from a sealed monster box that was produced at that particular mint. For example "2015(W)" is a bullion coin that was produced at the West Point mint. "2015-W" is a collector uncirculated (aka burnished) coin that was produced at the West Point mint and is(was) available to collectors through the mint's website.
Here's a good website for getting information about silver eagles.
http://silvereagleguide.com/You'll also want to decide whether or not you want to collect certified or uncertified silver eagles. I personally don't collect the certified ones, but there's nothing wrong with going either way. Regardless, look at the coins yourself and decide if the coin meets your standards. I've seen MS-70 coins in slabs that have spots on them (spots probably didn't show when they were put in the slab) and I've seen unslabbed coins that look perfect. The bullion coins are basically perfect when they leave the mint, but people take them out of rolls, put their fingers on them, and put them back in rolls. Don't feel bad about not buying a coin that you don't like. When putting my silver eagle collection together, I've only purchased about 20% of the coins I looked at. Finally, here's an excellent link regarding the silver eagle mintages.
http://silvereagleguide.com/mintagesAs you can see by looking at the chart, the collector "uncirculated" (aka "burnished") silver eagles were not even produced until 2006. Pay particular attention to the notes at the bottom. Some coins were available individually and in sets.
Also, I'm not at all trying to be the grammar police here, but please try to do a better job of using capitol letters and punctuation. I had to read your posts several times to make sure that I understood what you were trying to say.
Finally, keep in mind that you likely paid a premium for the coin you purchased because it has an autograph. Nothing wrong with that if that's what you wanted.
Edited by Bret
09/18/2015 09:58 am
First Page
Posted 09/13/2015 5:27 pm
..but also get a 69 grade coin and see if you can tell the difference. Not a big investment and a world of education
