Silver Eagle Obverse Observations 1986-2019

The following reflects my findings upon review of the obverses of only regular, bullion-strike Silver Eagles. I have not considered proof, burnished, or any other striking styles.

This is my own opinion based upon my own eyesight, magnifiers, and patience. Your opinion and experience, not to mention your particular coins, may vary. But I have put my best effort forth into listing my findings here, based on the coins I had available for review.

I wrote this in 2019 and planned to continue this project eventually. I already have pages of handwritten notes on reverse details, but I've kind of moved on to other things and hope this might be helpful to someone as it is.

—————————————————

Obverse A ("Bishop Toes")

Date(s): 1986, 1987, 1988.

Liberty has a soft face and cap, and a weakly-defined appearance to the upper dress area that looks reasonably true to the Walking Liberty half dollar design. Two points of a star protrude from the back of Liberty's neck.

The rear sandal has a softly-defined but clear over/under weave effect to the straps. The front sandal has a soft criss-cross with what I call "bishop toes," as the foot resembles a chess bishop tipped onto its left side. The thumb of the hand holding the branches points to a fragment of a stripe that begins at the tip of the thumb and moves diagonally down and to the left.

Under Liberty's outstretched arm, there is a subtle outline encircling approximately 75 percent of the left-most star. This outlining is comprised of the edge of the flag and the line where the star field meets the nearest stripe, which meets the edge of the flag in a soft curve. I believe the apparent outline is the result of the star field being in lower relief than both the closest stripe and the edge of the flag. This outlining effect is subtle and requires the proper lighting angle for me to find it on certain coins.

The sun rays appear to be higher off of the coin than in any other obverse style.

Obverse B ("Animal Paw")

Date(s): 1989, 1990, 1991.

Almost everything is more clearly defined than in Obverse A. Liberty's face is sharpening enough to look almost harsh in comparison to the previous coins. The definition of fingers on both hands is greater, cross hatching on star field is clearer, and flag stripes and flowing movement are crisper. The subtle softness of Obverse A is lost here.

The rear sandal adds a fairly well-defined "upper" -- an element that seems to either hang over or attach to the top of the foot. It appears as two petal-like shapes with a notch or short line between them near the bottom. The front sandal has a soft criss-cross with a clear over/under weave pattern, with a foot that looks like an animal's paw.

Under Liberty's outstretched arm, the subtle outline effect around the left-most star is gone. The involved line between the star field and the nearest stripe is now more deeply incused and meets the edge of the flag at much closer to a 90 degree angle.

The sun rays no longer stand as high off of the fields, and their top surfaces appear to be more parallel to the field.

NOTE: The rear sandal on the coins from 1989 seem to retain much of the over/under weave effect of the Obverse A coins, while the 1990 and 1991 examples have this effect greatly reduced.

Obverse C ("Macaroni Toes")

Date(s): 1992.

The relief is noticably reduced, and the details of the design now give me a sense of being drawn rather than sculpted. A good area to compare for this effect is where the flag meets the front sandal -- the definition is greater but seems to have less depth than in previous years.

The front foot looks similar to the animal paw of the previous obverse but has been redone and looks less realistic -- it has the appearance of pieces of macaroni lined up on the sandal, with the toe to the viewer's right being smaller and lower than on Obverse B. The upper on the front sandal looks like two pieces of macaroni turned upside down and placed over the top of the foot.

The rear sandal upper now has two pronounced halves, which are separated all the way from bottom to top by a line. It gives the impression of having two flower petals hanging down over the front of the foot, with the petal to the viewer's left partially covering the one to the viewer's right.

The weave to the straps on both sandals is now replaced with simple lines, with no over/under appearance.

The numerals comprising the date seem to be shallower off of the surface than on the previous obverse styles. The date field on all previous coins seems to be dished and relatively smooth, with only a subtle effect that reminds me of soft clay or putty. The date field on the 1992 coin appears to be less dished, and slightly more dough-like in appearance. It may be that the loss of relief in this area makes the dough-like texture look more pronounced.

Obverse D ("Normal Toes")

Date(s): 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007.

It appears that the design has been touched up, adjusted, or completely re-engraved. The following items stand out:

The two points of a star protruding from the back of Liberty's neck are now gone, and are replaced with a plain cross hatched area.
Liberty's outstretched arm now adds a small patch of horizontal striping among the folds of fabric in the upper arm area.
Liberty's upper arm holding the branches adds a recessed, teardrop-shaped fold element near the shoulder. This was previously weakly hinted at in the strikes of 1986-1991 (but notably, not at all in 1992, which has clear but shallow garment flow lines of roughly equal depth in this area).
The collar and upper shirt area have some different definition to outlining, contours, and fold lines.
The hand holding the branches has more bone structure and shape than the "paddle" style hand of all previous obverses.
The thumb of the hand holding the branches no longer points to a fragment of a stripe. The area formerly containing the stripe now contains a plain, unmarked contour.

The front sandal now has a less pronounced upper, and the foot looks more realistic, which I call "normal toes." The sandal newly adds a design element that I think of as "D-Ring," since it looks like a modern metal ring in the shape of a capital letter D, leaning to the left so that the upright element of the D is nearly horizontal. The rear sandal has an upper similar to that of Obverse C (though not identical), and though the strap pattern is the same, the lines are thinner and in shallower relief.

The coins of 1993, 1994, and 1995 have weak definition to the ground, which has a soft, flowing transition into the sun, sun ray, sky, and date field, respectively. This is very much like all preceding obverses. 1996 introduces a new ground style that contains more definition of ridges and varying depth, as well as a comparatively high-contrast transition against the sun, sun ray, sky, and date field, respectively. This new ground and transition style continue from 1996 forward.

In all coins prior to 1996, there is a concave/dished appearance to the fields of the obverse, especially where the fields raise gradually as they meet the rim. Introduced in 1996 is the complete lack of concavity to the fields -- for the first time, the fields are completely flat. This flat-field style continues from 1996 forward.

The coins of 1993-1995 have a date field very similar to (but not exactly the same as) the coins of 1992. Since some of the depth of the date field on coins from 1986-1995 seems to come from the general concavity of the coin fields, it is worth noting that when the coin fields are made flat beginning in 1996 as discussed in the previous paragraph, much of the depth in the date field is also lost moving forward. The date fields of 1996-2007 look nearly identical.

Obverse E (Some Flattening, New Typefaces)

Date(s): 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015.

All letters in LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST have lost any roundness and depth of previous obverses and now appear to be shallow, broad shelves that are parallel to the flat fields.

The typeface used for LIBERTY is different, most noticeably in the loss of the tapered "eyelash" appearance to the right leg of the R. The letters are farther from the rim at their highest points (with the exception of the R, which is closer to the rim as discussed below), but meet the design at similar places at their lowest points.

The placement of each letter in LIBERTY is discussed here individually:

The upright of the L is now intersected by the sun ray near its top. Previous obverses found this intersection just above the center of the upright.
The I now points to a broad/flat area of the flag (representing a white stripe), whereas it pointed to a tightly striped area (representing a red stripe) in the previous obverses.
The B is placed nearly the same in relation to the flag.
The space between the E and the flag is no longer present; the bottom of the E now seems to be slightly superimposed over the flag.
The R is the only letter that is closer to the rim than before, rather than farther away. I assume that this is to maintain visibility of the new R, without it being largely obscured by the intervening foliage.
The T is placed similarly.
The Y is placed similarly.

The typeface used for IN GOD WE TRUST is also different. This is most noticeable in that the tapered "eyelash" appearance to the R has been lost, and that the U has gained a tail to the viewer's right.

The sun rays are also broader and flatter, with the last ray (considered clockwise) filling nearly half of the space between the flag and the ground.

The typeface used for the date numerals is smaller, and is noticeably more wiry and less ornate than in the previous obverse style. The date fields have an increased dough/putty effect, with more depth variation at the surface. There is a wavy, raised "double bump" low and to the right of the date in the date field from 2008 to 2012; of the two bumps, the one to the left disappears in 2013.

Obverse F ("Melted Ice Cream")

Date(s): 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019.

The typefaces making up LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST appear more rounded than the previous "shelf" style, and have a fuzzy surface and gradual transition from field to device not seen on previous coins. The letters in LIBERTY give the sense that the letters of Obverse E were raised considerably off of the surface, then melted away like ice cream to give them a soft appearance.

The letters in IN GOD WE TRUST have taken on the new finish and transition, but are not noticeably higher off of the coin surface. The sun rays give this same impression. It is worth noting that the sun itself, and the digits on the date, do not seem to be affected by this; they appear as they did on Obverse E.

The date fields appear very much as they did in the previous obverse. A subtle detail, however, reemerges -- the "double bump" low and to the right of the date from 2008 to 2012 had the component to the left disappear in 2013. This element returns in 2016 moving forward, but in a considerably muted version. That is to say, of the two bumps discussed in the coins of 2008 to 2012, the bump to the left returns in 2016 but with less emphasis. All coins of Obverse F have the same date field style. This may change as future coins are released, of course.