A United States Mint response to a Freedom of Information Act inquiry on American Eagle silver bullion coin output confirms that all 1986 and 1987 production was executed at the San Francisco Mint.

Coin World’s Coin Values price guide has long listed the San Francisco Mint as the sole source (accurately) for American Eagle silver bullion coin production for those two years. However, published information from other sources previously identified that 1986 and 1987 production from the first two years of the series also included coins from the West Point and Denver Mint facilities.

Lee Minshull from Lee Minshull Rare Coins Inc. in Palos Verdes, California, submitted the FOIA inquiry seeking clarification of the mintage information. The charted information provided by the Mint, which Minshull shared with Coin World, in response to that request details the mintage numbers and production information from 1986 through July 17, 2017.

The accompanying table illustrates those details.

Coin World has requested details on the production from the remainder of 2017, all of 2018, 2019 and current 2020 output.

The 2017 mintage figures include coins struck at the San Francisco, West Point and Philadelphia Mints.

Coin World reported in May 2020 that the Philadelphia Mint struck 240,000 American Eagle silver bullion coins in April at the Philadelphia Mint during a two-week period when it supplemented West Point Mint production during COVID-19 safety measures that impacted the latter facility.

In 1986 and 1987, the West Point facility was officially a silver bullion depository and the San Francisco facility was an assay office. On March 31, 1988, Public Law 100–274 elevated both facilities to full Mint status.

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