This year’s third pair of America the Beautiful Five Ounce Silver Coins celebrate Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. The uncirculated edition for coin collectors went on sale July 7, 2015. The bullion edition intended for investors launched on June 22, 2015 and has already sold out. This article presents photos of the two.
Both coins share designs, inscriptions and all major specifications to include their five-ounce weight, .999 fine purity and 3.0-inch diameter. Each is made at the Philadelphia Mint on the same Grabener 1000 ton press.
Their finishes set them apart visually. Bullion coins have a brilliant finish while the collector editions have a matte uncirculated finish.
Additionally, the collector coins carry a ‘P’ mint mark while the bullion issues have no mint mark.
In other differences, they are also sold and packaged differently. The United States Mint offers its five-ounce bullion coins through a network of "authorized purchasers" at a price of $9.75 per coin, plus spot. AP’s buy them in bulk and then resell them with their own added premium. Today, as silver sits near $15.45 an ounce, you can buy non-graded examples from coin and precious metals dealers for about $133, with discounts offered at higher quantities. Conversely, the U.S. Mint sells collector issues directly to the public and their prices rarely change. They are available now for $149.95 each.
As for packaging, the Mint ships five-ounce bullion coins to AP’s in 10-coin tubes within blue monster boxes. For smaller orders, dealers often repackage coins into vinyl flips or plastic holders.
The more expensive collector coin arrives in a U.S. Mint-branded presentation case, is encapsulated for protection, and includes a certificate of authenticity.
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Sales of the pair have moved along at different paces. After temporarily selling out on the same day it launched, ordering re-opened for the bullion coin on July 13. Sales reached 45,000 until the official sellout happened on July 29. That’s the highest total in the series since coins from 2011.
The collector uncirculated coin opened with starting sales of 15,295. It logged added orders of 533 during its first full week of availability, another 257 during the second week, 542 in the third week, and then 309 through the fourth week. As of Aug. 9, it has sales of 16,936 for 84.7% of the maximum 20,000 coins. Competing in tougher conditions with a fixed price set against a down silver market, its nearly five-week total is off 616 from same period start of the prior 2015-dated five-ounce issue honoring Kisatchie National Forest of Louisiana and 1,452 lower than the first one celebrating Homestead National Monument of America in Nebraska.
Latest 2015 ATB Five Ounce Silver Coin Sales
Below are the latest available sales figures for this year’s coins. Those with an asterisk (*) are sold out.
| Bullion Edition | Collector Edition | |
| 2015 Blue Ridge Parkway Silver Coins | 45,000* | 16,936 |
| 2015 Kisatchie Silver Coins | 42,000* | 17,405 |
| 2015 Homestead Silver Coins | 35,000* | 18,962 |
Here are two larger photos of both sides of the collectible 2015-P Blue Ridge Parkway uncirculated silver coin:
And lastly, here are two larger photos of both sides of the bullion 2015 Blue Ridge Parkway silver coin:
I find the 5 ounce silver coins to be very beautiful coins. The 3″ diameter provides a good canvas to draw on. The fact that you can get the bullion version for about the same price as 5 silver eagles makes these a no brainer if you are going to be buying silver anyway.
I agree – I’ve been collecting them since 2011, waiting for the limited mintage 2010’s to come down in price so I can have a complete set.
I have a neat way to display them as well. My wife had old shelves for displaying tea cups and saucers; the groove in the wood is the perfect width to fit the coin to stand on edge.
Giant price spike in these pucks of late?
What i don’t understand is that one issue has eg. 14863 , the next one 29000 ,
27500 , …
I don’t get it.