1986 S American Eagle Proofs

Check ebay sold values for the going value. I ordered one from the mint wayyyy back then.
John1

Thanks guys! I noticed on ebay that when they were graded professionally that they were generally worth more than in their original cases. Why is that?

Interesting! So it may be in my best interest to get mine professionally graded.

You may want to research grading fees before you send in anything for grading. Depending on the coin, many times it is cheaper to buy coins that are already graded. Large customers of the TPGs (Third Party Graders) get substantial discounts for the volume of business they do and most of the time their graded coins end up for sale. And for the more common coins, you can usually get them in a high grade for cheaper than it would cost you to send it in for grading.

A little background - 1986 was the inaugural year for the American Silver Eagle series. There were around 1.5M produced, which is the most by far of any year of the proofs. In fact the next time a proof mintage broke 1M was in 2006, and to my knowledge it hasn't happened since.

Pics would help and this post probably belongs in the NCLT forum.

Thanks for all of the feedback! Here are some images. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks!

The difference between a 69 and 70 is virtually impossible for any of us to see from online pictures.

That said, these are great pics of great coins -- minimal haze and spotting; fields are very reflective. I'd be happy with them as they are but I'd want to make sure they stayed in that condition.

As a collector of the series, I am biased and I think yours are gorgeous. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that all the specks and smudges are on the capsules, not the coins themselves.

Nice photos, by the way.



Only you can make that call. Personally I would not. Again, do the research on what it costs to send in a coin for grading -- that will help you make up your mind. I'm guessing it would cost at least $50-60 with shipping to have both graded. And then you're likely to get back 69's as BH1964 said.

If you're the gambling type and hope to get a 70 to cash in on a subsequent sale, then do it.

Or if the coins are sentimental to you, and you just want to do it for whatever reason you might have, then do it.

but otherwise... meh.

If you want a guaranteed 70, sell yours and put the funds towards a pre-graded 70.

I'll shut up now. Let us know what you decide and good luck.

Do some searching on this forum and you will also find that some people put a lot of faith in grading companies and others do not. Do some objective homework before making a decision as to how much faith you are willing to put into the companies before deciding to send yours in. An informed decision from looking at both sides of the issue is the best.

For example, here on this forum is a thread which shows two completely different looking coins in different conditions graded by PCGS as being the same.
http://goccf.com/t/322364

You should also know that if a coin is submitted and graded, if a person would break it out and resubmit that same coin, the coin is never guaranteed to get the same grade again. Grading coins by these companies is very subjective.

Also know each grading company has their own standards/systems/trained graders (according to those individual systems), and each company will tell you they are the best (they businesses after all).

PCGS is the company people will pay more for when buying slabbed coins. However, a growing trend now has been that people are willing to pay even more if a second set of experts looks at the slabs and affixes a little sticker on it to say its a solid coin for the grade on the label (CAC sticker).

The wisest saying about this is repeated over and over here on this forum and others... buy the coin, not the slab.