One million 2020 American Eagle silver bullion dollars struck at the San Francisco Mint were sold Nov. 2 to nine of the U.S. Mint’s network of 12 authorized purchasers at a slightly higher premium per coin than that charged for the same coins struck at the West Point Mint.

Using the U.S. Mint’s standard allocation protocol for distributing the bullion coins, the bureau, according to Mint spokesman Michael White, imposed “a premium of $2.65 per coin, compared to the standard $2.35 per coin. This higher premium is necessary to cover the higher program costs associated with production costs at San Francisco. Authorized Purchasers are given the choice of either San Francisco or West Point as their pick-up facility.”

The premium is added to the London Bullion Market Association P.M. closing price for silver per troy ounce.

Meeting demand

To meet demand for the coins, the American Eagle silver bullion coins have been struck at multiple facilities. Only the Denver Mint has not struck the bullion versions of the coins. Since 1988, the West Point Mint has been most prolific producer of the coins, followed by the San Francisco Mint and then the Philadelphia facility.

“This past summer, demand for the United States Mint’s American Eagle Silver Bullion Coin Program was extremely strong, and the Mint was at times unable to meet full market demand,” according to an Oct. 29 news release from the Mint issued by White. “In an effort to meet demand, the San Francisco Mint was used to augment American Silver Eagle Bullion production.”

The U.S. Mint had sold 24,533,500 American Eagle silver bullion coins to date in calendar year 2020 through Nov. 1 compared to 14.8 million American Eagle silver bullion coins sold for the entire 2019 calendar year.

White identified the nine authorized purchasers who placed orders for the San Francisco Mint silver American Eagles as:
➤ A-Mark Precious Metals, El Segundo. California.
➤ Dillon Gage Metals Division, Addison, Texas.
➤ Coins ‘N Things Inc. (CNT), Bridgewater, Massachusetts.
➤ APMEX, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
➤ MTB (Manfra, Tordella  & Brookes Inc.), a subsidiary of MKS PAMP Group, New York City.
➤ Jack Hunt Coin Broker, Buffalo, New York.
➤ The Gold Center, Springfield, Illinois.
➤ FideliTrade Incorporated, Wilmington, Delaware.
➤ StoneX, New York City.

Since the bullion coins struck at the San Francisco and West Point Mints do not bear each respective facility’s Mint mark and are indistinguishable,  the U.S. Mint explains how the grading services and the general public can identify the 1 million San Francisco Mint strikes.

“The outside of the San Francisco-produced silver bullion coin green ‘monster’ boxes will be labeled and numbered to allow purchasers of sealed boxes to confirm that the coins were produced at the San Francisco Mint,” according to the U.S. Mint’s news release. “Each monster box contains 500 1-ounce coins. The production lot number on the green monster boxes of coins produced at San Francisco will incorporate the numbers 800,000 through 801,999.”

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