Collectors may need to act fast today, Aug. 23, if they want to get 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals. They go on sale directly from the United States Mint beginning at noon Eastern Time (ET).
Demand is expected to be high for the two Liberty medals that share the same designs as found on last year’s 2015 $100 American Liberty High Relief Gold Coin. Two versions will be available with one from the U.S. Mint at West Point and one from the U.S. Mint at San Francisco.
Mintage is limited with only 12,500 available of each option. A household limit of 2 medals from each minting facility also applies.
Medal Designs & Specifications
Medal obverses (heads side) feature a rendition of Liberty meant to symbolize the ideals of liberty, courage, and hope. United States Mint Artistic Infusion Program (AIP) designer Justin Kunz created the image and United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Phebe Hemphill sculpted it. LIBERTY, 2016 and the artist’s and sculptor’s initials finish the design.
Found on their reverse is the image of an American eagle rising in flight. The eagle is gripping a branch in its talons, completing the "embodiment of freedom" design. Artistic Infusion Program Designer Paul C. Balan designed the reverse with its sculpting the work of United States Mint Sculptor-Engraver Don Everhart. An inscription reads UNITED STATES OF AMERICA with artist and sculptor initials joining the appropriate mintmark of either ‘W’ for West Point or ‘S’ for San Francisco.
The medals are struck on the same silver blanks as American Silver Eagles. Their specifications include:
| Finish: | Proof |
|---|---|
| Composition: | 99.9% Silver |
| Content | .999 Fine Silver (31.072 grams) Balance Copper |
| Diameter: | 1.598 inches (40.60 mm) |
| Weight: | 1.000 troy oz. (31.103 grams) |
| Edge: | Smooth |
| Mint: | West Point or San Francisco |
| Mintmark: | W or S |
Ordering
Order 2016 American Liberty Silver Medals from the U.S. Mint for $34.95 each. The Mint’s product pages for the two are here and here.
Each medal is encapsulated and presented in a blue velvet presentation case. A certificate of authenticity is also included.
Update: Both medals are "currently unavailable." The "W" medal was unavailable within 6 minutes of launching. The "S" medal was unavailable within 8 minutes of going on sale. The U.S. Mint said the medals’ status would remain as unavailable until all order reconciliations and order cancellations have been processed.
I am hoping I can can a strike from each mint today!!! What a gorgeous looking coin.
Medal
Guess all the heavy hitters will be lined up or their surrogates
Little guys have NO chance
I noticed the coin has no E Pluribus Unum.. Is that not required ? To bad us small collectors have no chance of getting them ! But I’ll try !
I will die trying!
Or is it I will try dying? Only 12,500? Tell me it’s a joke. A 1 minute sell out at 2 per person. Totally unfair. TOTALLY!
Remember it is Silver medal not the coin ! that mean it is NOT legal tender like a coin. it is Only contain silver value.You think who will be big winner of this medal ?
Answer: US mint
These AL silver medals are NOT high relief like the Mint said they would be as a companion to the high relief gold $100 AL coin from last year with same basic design. They promised high relief medals & at last minute changed their mind to just do regular low relief on these silver medals. Disappointed!
-NumisDudeTX
Well – I placed an order and then by 12:06 it said unavailable so I guess they sold out – website locked up on me twice.
I punched my order and it accepted it on both mints, but I tried to look it over and nothing. So I guess I’ll see.
Sold Out?
Holy Crap! Logged in at 12:03 and West Point was unavailable. Got 2 in my cart for San Fran but by the time I got to check out it too was no longer available.
Curses!
12:07 currently unavailable! Had issues with billing and confirmation button missing. Able to finally get in but wow 7 minute sell out. Best of luck to all who tried!
Sold out WTF. Can never get my hands on anything now days. Had the same problem with the gold mercury dime. I give up!!!!!
This silver medal hit the US mint selling record sold out in 3 mins
Guess sometimes the little guys DO win, I stand corrected.
A fortunate few…..maybe next time the Mint will make 125,000…..what am I thinking its THE MINT
Silgold – imagine if it were high relief!
Well because it is silver medal no trademark protection , so private mint can make it without the Mintmark !
At 12:05 THE “W” Sold out, then at 12:06 the S” sold out. My 2+2 four medal order generated an email at 12:04.
I’m not a dealer,
I didn’t order for others.
Lindy
Signed up for the mint email to get reminded when these would go on sale from the mint a long time ago. Got the email at 12:06 after they already sold out! Thanks for nothing lol
I tried to buy just one of these for myself. I must have input my credit card info incorrectly and didn’t have time to correct it before they sold out. I don’t understand how the cart doesn’t reserve one for you while you complete your order like when you order tickets on ticketmaster. Oh well, I’ve been able to get some of the other high demand, limited releases in the past. I feel a lot better though knowing that this is not high relief. If it was, I would be super bummed.
Ordered one from each mint for my personal collection. Considered ordering the limit, but want to reserve funds for the 2016 Silver Eagle and the gold standing liberty quarter. Had some trouble with my payment information, but obtained a mint email stating they received my order at 12:04pm. Hope I get a confirmation. Really wish they medals were high relief, but still think the design is well done. I am hoping to see other modern renditions of liberty on coins in future releases.
On line at 12:00pm, filled cart with one each, checked out 12:04pm, confirmation sent from mint at 12:06pm. First time on line order luck I guess. Never did get through on the phone, tried at the same time. Sorry for all those who didn’t get one. Still don’t understand why they couldn’t have had an unlimited MINTAGE seeing how they were medals? I too wish they would have been in high relief.
In 12: out at 12:01 smooth as silk 1 ea W&S
Wasn’t greedy, got one of each mint mark. I’m sure Ebay already has preorders for Pf70 listed for around $200.00 because that’s all they’ll bring. I like the Singold post. I bet they’ll be alot of knockoffs since wasn’t monetized and they’ll remove the proof mark. Probably will be worth more buying them than orignals since private Mints can use Artistic license to make 1, 2 and 5 oz hireliefs. Time will tell. There is no money to be made in the secondary market. So, you probably won’t see many offered with the low mintage. Was strictly first come, first… Read more »
What a complete Joke, sold out in 5 minutes…. I called and was in there website and still could not get one of these coins due to the fact to the mints website kept crashing..
The price was $34.95 and I got my four silver medals in two minutes and was a nervous wreck knowing if I made one error I would be stuck in the gate and not even get a call. What a great day. Sometimes the little guys out fox the whales.
It’s nothing more than bullion.
It is bullion, but how many silver eagles does the mint sell per year.
Bullion on an American Eagle blank with a mint mark. 😉
Price will appreciate astronomically. Historical in my opinion.
Big D
Look at scalpers on EBay. Huge profit over cost. Hope the value stays for years to come as my kids will either enjoy the coins and great history of coins or just reap the value if people still collect coins in 20 years. Still very confusing to see the mint work. One set of coins high production little interest then other sets low mintage and frustration to buy. You would think the mint would keep sets and coins relatively lower mintage and lower the household limit so most would have a chance to buy. Congrats to those who got in… Read more »
The system was locked up at 1 minute after noon. This happens every time they do these limited coin runs. I have finally had enough, and will be filing a Congressional investigation into the policies and practices of the U.S. Mint.
What a bummer. I just logged on to buy one, and it appears both mints are sold out.
Logged in to the mint site at 11:55am…..at the strike of noon ordered 2 each and then checked out and printed order !!
Was just checking at 12:06p and ALL SOLD OUT….WOW !!!
You’ve just got to be quick !!
Time waits for no one.
The 24 Kt. Standing Liberty 2016 Centennial Gold Coin, soon to be released, should sell for around $500 when the 100,000 copies are released from the mint on September 8.
I got the little guy, the dime, in the 20 minute sellout but haven’t decided if I’ll go for the quarter. 100K is a huge difference in mintage numbers and the 12.5 K minted medal could wind up being more valuable than the gold quarter, I believe, with a much lesser investment.
Big D
Got 1 of each, acknowledgement at 12:03, confirmation at 12:41. Got lucky I guess.
I started refreshing the website at 11:59. with a hick up of having to re enter my credit card number I still got my 4. Will go good with my liberty gold 100.00. Just a collector not going to sell any.
Sadly, and perhaps obsessively, since 2014, I never open my packages from the mint and we never get to see the items other than the images. Does that sound silly?
Big D
Mike You might want to do more than that, I was logged in 30 min ahead of time and refreshed right up to the 1 min mark and the status never ever changed, called and she said they are unavailable, ,the system never changed, been buying coins from the mint for years , this is getting really bad and sorry and happens to many times on every new release, There is no more coin collecting any more ,they have turned it into a business ,and a sorry one at that, maybe just once every one should boycott for six months… Read more »
Sadly, just had to resort to ebay at over 3x the offering price. Oh well…
i got my sets easy-peasy
I was on @ 9:00 pdt & froze, unforze @ 9:03 or so & SOLD OUT..the mint is a bunch of losers. We are bigger losers paying some putz oni ebay 3x issue price for a bullion puck w/o a hallmark. But hey kids don’t worry, there will be a set @ the end of the year, because there is NO PRODUCT MINTAGE LIMIT, just the 12k limit on ONE, think they will make more, duhh a set of 2 of these fast sellers for say $100, I can hear the mint’s chief saying do it, as he plans another… Read more »
The federal government has the worst systems in the world…no wonder why Hillary had her own server…..
this little guy tagged 2 each, by 12:02.
This is not a collectors sport anymore. The Mint is playing to the hands of dealers. I’m sure they are the ones that got the most purchases. But don’t despair folks, “product limit” and “mintage limit” are entirely two different things. Today was a release of 12,500 medals. Mintage limit “none”. So I am sure the Mint (fingers crossed) will print more -my guess. And if they don’t, I’m still not buying it on Ebay for $200 +
I don’t know how I managed it but succeeded in ordering one of each. The only reason I wanted them was as companion pieces to the sister high relief gold piece which I think is the best design from the mint in a long time. I wouldn’t waste money buying them on eBay because I’m sure that they will be selling for pennies over melt in a few years – just like most of the commemorative silver dollars I have in the closet.
Colec / Whistler
Just found out with the low mintage on these Medals and house hold limit ,they were offering 25.00 to 30 .00 per unopened box to there employees , thats how they are getting around the house hold limit,, well I might miss out ,,,But iam still not going to Ebay,,,,all that would be doing is feeding the Flippers…..
bilelle August 23, 2016 at 1:20 pm I was on line at a few seconds after noon and had 2 coins from each mint in my bag but the system would NOT let me check the confirm that I accept the mints terms. I got the email time stamped at 12:06 that the coins were now avaiable (sad joke on the mints part) . I called the mint order line and the woman tod me they were sold out. I asked her how many orders she was able to take and she replied “only 1 order”. I told her how… Read more »
I started calling the US Mint order line for this medal set at about 4 minutes past noon and got a busy signal. I called over and over and over again for the next hour and kept getting a busy signal. I never got a busy signal before when calling the US Mint order line. Their order line was obviously jammed with tons of people trying to order these medals…..wow! I gave up after about an hour. Then I called later and an automated message came on with the news that these medals are no longer available. Prices for these… Read more »
Since I signed up for this forum, never have I seen so many emails on one product. The mint gave us a few hour warning that they were going on sale, told us how few their were, how much an limit per person. In the end, there we the lucky few and the unlucky many. We all knew what was was coming and the Mint didn’t dissapoint in screwing the pooch. HEY U.S. MINT! You got 3 more that collectors want, the Proof Eagle, the Gold Quarter and the Gold 50 cent piece. GET IT RIGHT! I’M NOT EVEN GOING… Read more »
Charles / Whistler: Yes no Ebay! That’s a fool’s game – with many losers. I just spoke to the Mint. They are going to produce more. Today was only the release of what they had in stock. So make sure you click on the remind button to know when they release the new batch.
But why would the mint stop taking orders – that does not make sense – you would simply put the sets on back order until they are available – right? – they do work in mysterious ways
I got my 2 ‘S’ marks and 2 ‘W’ marks.
Thanks Mint!
Colec,
I’ve had a US Mint order agent tell me that a particular coin that was currently “unavailable” would go back on sale….it never did or if it did, it quickly sold out of whatever was put on sale again.
So I treat this medal’s “unavailable” status as more or less “Sold Out”.
I got my 2 ‘S’ and 2 “W’ medals without any problems this time. The mint’s website worked perfectly without knocking me off line this time like it did in the past for high demand items. Thanks for the more stable website, mint.
I was able to order 2 “w” & 2 “s” medals by starting at exactly 12:00 noon. The only problem I experienced was the website didn’t seem to want to let me order all 4 medals on one order, so I placed 2 orders (2 shipping fees). Other that that, I’m happy. Website did not knock me completely off line like it used to in the past when ordering high demand items. I guess they have really improved the website. I’m happy. I love these ultra-low mintage products. They are guaranteed to appreciate in value.