2020 American Eagle silver bullion coins from Philadelphia Mint being certified

Certified examples of 2020 American Eagle silver bullion coins struck at the Philadelphia Mint while the West Point Mint was temporarily shuttered in April are already being sold into the numismatic marketplace.

Professional Coin Grading Service, Numismatic Guaranty Corp., ANACS and Independent Coin Graders are following the same protocol for authenticating, grading and encapsulating any of the 240,000 2020 American Eagle silver bullion coins at the Philadelphia Mint struck between April 8 and April 20.

Safety precautions taken by the U.S. Mint amid the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the closure of the West Point Mint on April 15. The closure caused silver American Eagle production to be shifted temporarily to the Philadelphia facility. Production resumed at the West Point Mint on April 21.

The Philadelphia Mint production was shipped in 500-coin monster boxes marked in black with tracking numbers from 400000 through 400479. Each box contains 25 20-coin pliable-plastic tubes.

To certify the Philadelphia Mint coins, the four grading services are requiring that the sealed 500-coin boxes, as they are sold to the authorized purchasers, be sent intact to the respective grading service.

The grading services are offering various grading labels to identify the coins as being from the Philadelphia Mint.

Based on its mintage of 240,000 coins, the Philadelphia Mint 2020 American Eagle silver bullion coin is the second rarest issue in the series since it was introduced in 1986.

NGC officials report Philadelphia Mint coins they certify will be identified on the label “Struck at Philadelphia Mint 2020 (P) Eagle S$1, Emergency Production.”

PCGS President Brett Charville said the 2020 Philadelphia Mint silver American Eagles “will be labeled in various different ways, including ‘Emergency Issue.’ ”

Amanda Barnhardt, ICG customer service representative, told Coin World via email May 6 that the grading service had in-house a number of 500-coin monster boxes that meet the criteria for identifying the emergency production.

Paul DeFelice, vice president of marketing and client relations for ANACS, said, “The label will describe the mint mark as ‘(P)’. The label is likely to read ‘Struck at Philadelphia Mint’ and/or ‘Emergency Production.’ ”

“Submitters will be required to send the entire, strapped and unopened monster box of Silver Eagles to verify the box tracking numbers as coming from the Philadelphia mint augmented production,” DeFelice said.

Completed sales have already been recorded on eBay for Philadelphia Mint struck 2020 American Eagle silver bullion coins that have been graded and encapsulated by PCGS, NGC and ANACS.

One seller has recorded sales of nearly three dozen PCGS Mint State 70, First Strike Philadelphia Issues at $219.95 each.

In comparison, APMEX, one of the U.S. Mint’s authorized purchasers, is currently offering PCGS MS-70 First Strike West Point Mint American Eagle silver bullion coins for just under $50 per coin.

Completed eBay sales report one seller has sold as of May 7 more than 100 MS-69 Philadelphia Mint American Eagles at $79 per coin. Another seller recorded sales of nearly a dozen NGC MS-60 First Day of Issue Philadelphia strikes for $99 per coin.

ANACS-certified coin sales include 84 Philadelphia Mint silver American Eagles labeled “Brilliant Uncirculated” that were sold at $54.95 per coin.

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