What If The US Mint Produced A 2009 American Silver Eagle Proof?

@Dearborn, The actual reason I posted a few posts up - starts "General info for those that dont know about the 2009 missing proof:"




Mike, just a quick side note to your comment. The primarily copper cent was changed to a primarily zinc cent in 1982 and has remain that way ever since which is what you refer to. The general circulation coins for 2009 do contain the same base zinc metal composition as the Memorial cent, which is comprised of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper. However some special 2009 cents contain the original copper coin metal composition actually that they had in 1909, which contained 95% copper and 5% Tin and Zinc.

The proof 2009 Lincoln Cent designs were struck with a mirror finish in the fields with frosted features. They were struck on solid 95% copper bronze planchets, just like the original 1909 Lincoln Cent. 95% Copper, 5% Tin and Zinc. The proof 2009-S Lincoln cents were only available in the 18-coin 2009 Proof Set, made at the San Francisco Mint - Mintage:
2,995,615

The satin-finish 2009 Lincoln cents were only issued as part of the 2009 Uncirculated coin sets. These sets used special burnished dies to give a satin finish to the fields on each coin.

The 2009 Uncirculated coin set comprised 36 coins, double the number in the Proof sets. These sets featured all 18 coin designs and denominations issued in 2009 for both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. The eight different Lincoln cents issued in the set were of significance because they were composed of 95% copper alloy, 3% zinc and 2% tin. (95% Copper, 5% Tin and Zinc). This metal composition was last used on Lincoln cents from 1909-1942. The Mint sold approximately 771,204 sets of the 2009 Uncirculated Mint Sets, which means that the Satin Finish 2009 Lincoln cents now have the second-lowest mintage in the Lincoln Cent series (for non-proof coins that are composed of mostly copper alloy). The four different 2009 Satin Finish Lincoln cents have an even lower mintage than the 1931-S Lincoln Cent!

David, for you, it's John, and I was joking in response to Mike's joke.

Let me just run this past everyone to make sure I understand the 2009 situation, and this is sort of a compilation of various articles I have read.
The economy was in the dumpster about this time. I believe this was referred to as the housing market bubble, had more to do with the banks than anything else, the "jumbo" loans coming due and financial stuff like that, that I don't really get in to.
Anyways, everything financially was going south and people were turning to precious metals. A lot.
So the demand was high for silver and especially ASEs.
The mint was getting planchets mainly from Sunshine Mint, and believe it or not, the US Mint isn't even their biggest customer. And they had a ton of private mints needing planchets. So Sunshine couldn't keep up with demand. The Mint even used a couple alternative refineries to get planchets.
Ultimately the mint decided to forget about the collectors and just keep up with demand for the bullion that year, which they felt they were legally obligated to do via the Liberty Coin Act of 1985.