Here's a video I did this evening comparing the last 4 ASE releases; Army privy, Laser engraved, S Proof, and Navy privy. I compared the packaging and the quality since the Laser engraved was introduced. Towards the end I did call the Limited Edition set the "Unlimited" Edition set. When I was zooming (rather unsuccessful) my voice was hard to hear as well.
Personally I have noticed Small Fine details Differing on the American Silver Eagles Series Releases, 1986- 2025, The Laser Engraved releases are differing in the Fine details, Once compared side by side as Gilly has shown Above, Quite nicely Too.
I took out a 2025 ASE Uncirculated - West Point. It presents a Fully struck coin. Intricate fine small details, Where as the 2025 ASE Proof-San Francisco The Fine, Small details pale in comparison, IMO.
West Point VS San Francisco......
Newer Laser Engraved VS Ole School Dies.....
Pulled out a 2016 ASE Proof - West Point to compare , There is a Very subtle difference on the Obverses, The 2025 Has a Remarkably Less fine details on the Coin, Waves on Her Gown are Weakly struck, Compared to the 2016-ASE Proof. The 2016-W has Clearly a Stronger strike which has Very defined Gown waves.
If one looks over these They too will see the changes or Results from changing the Dies to Laser Engraved and how they Compare....
Thank you, I have a real passion not only for the ASEs themselves, but for the OGP. Many people just go to slabbing right away, and yeah it's "their bag", that's fine. To me half the interest is the presentation. I'm glad I have my old sets, where they'd make some really cool boxes, say for example the 25th Anniversary 5 coin, isn't that great presentation? I did find it interesting to lay these 4 out and note the blue boxes, sleeves, and clamshells (the old fuzzy or felt type these used to use) and the black boxes and vinyl clamshells for the Laser Engraved and standard S Proof. I think they make these choices very deliberately. I do find the black vinyl has less fiber debris inside the clamshell. I know I can do better if I really want to. I thought I could pause the recording and restart and have one continuous video. Not so. I uploaded it, then discovered I only had the last 7 minutes. I found out it wasn't hard to put the first 5 minutes and the last 7 minutes together with the YouTube editor. So I'm learning. I think I can probably manage getting some of my nice close-ups added to the video and might make a better presentation. With my camera, I could even get better close-ups than I could get with the same phone, but in video mode. Not the same lenses. Or I could try my Phone O Scope in video mode, now that I know how to join different video clips together. I have a lot of different ideas for presenting this stuff, I think I'm good at thinking up different topics for videos, I look at things a little differently.
Nicely done Gilly! I too am a fan of OGP, there have been some very nice presentation boxes from the Mint, the 25th Anniversary (as you mentioned) the San Francisco and West Point Mint Anniversary set are my favorites.
You know that I'm a bit of a coin hoarder, when it comes to OGP. A few of the favorites I have: The 2013 Reverse Proof Buffalo, some one year only, for the Centennial of the "Buffalo" nickel. The 1997 Impressions of Liberty set, 1 each 1 oz proof silver, gold and platinum eagles. Very exclusive set. First year for the platinum eagles 2006 3 coin gold eagle set. There were 3 20th Anniversary sets in 2006. The 3 coin silver is the best known. There was also a 2 coin silver and gold set. 2006 was the first year for the Uncirculated finish for both silver and gold eagles. The 2 coin set was an Uncirculated silver and gold eagle. Then there was the 3 coin gold eagle set; same as the silver set, one proof, one Uncirculated, and one reverse proof, the main attraction being that this was the first and so far only time they've made a reverse proof gold eagle. So it will be the only type 1 reverse proof gold eagle, and so far there has not been a type 2. And again with all these, very nice presentation box.
Agree with Gilly's take on the crispness / quality of the prior generation of ASE's. I'll look forward to a side-by-side comparison of identically graded ( PF70 or PF69) CNC vs. Laser-Engraved ASE's in the future. In August I did a side by side of the Laser Engraved PM with a 2025 W ASE here: https://www.coincommunity.com/forum...y_ID=4347193 I'm certain someone with better photo skills can show us how the two varieties stack up.
Gilly: Thank you for sharing the video.
" Even a clock that's stopped is right twice a day. "
I did another video last night. I want to start doing a history of the ASE, have to start at the beginning, the first 7 years where there isn't all that much change year to year. As usual not a very polished video, but for 7 years, I kept it pretty short. I was going to do the production numbers, but it was pretty dry stuff, so I opted not to, or do a deep dive into the program. I thought this would be the best place to post this.
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Posted 10/19/2025 09:58 am
