2014 Silver Eagle MS70

History

The American Silver Eagle program began with the Liberty Coin Act, Public Law 99-61, signed on July 9, 1985. The legislation served two ends: drawing down silver held in the National Defense Stockpile, which contained close to 140 million ounces in the 1980s, and giving American buyers a government-backed one-ounce silver bullion coin to set against foreign issues such as the Krugerrand. The statute itself dictated the format, a one-ounce .999 fine silver piece with an obverse symbolic of Liberty and a reverse bearing an American bald eagle. By 2014, the 29th year of the program, bullion sales reached 44,006,000 coins, a record at the time and second only to the 1985 Act's successor peak in 2015, with the Mint reported to have struggled to secure enough planchets to keep pace.

Details

The obverse carries Adolph A. Weinman's 1916 design and the reverse John Mercanti's 1986 heraldic eagle. Each coin weighs 31.103 grams, one troy ounce, measures 40.60 mm across, and is struck in .999 fine silver, an alloy the Professional Coin Grading Service records as 99.93 percent silver with 0.07 percent copper. The edge is reeded without the security notch introduced on the Type 2 reverse in 2021, and the face value is one dollar. Bullion production for the date totaled 44,006,000 pieces, struck at West Point and San Francisco with no mintmark on either output.

Features

Weinman's Walking Liberty, carried over from the half dollar of 1916 to 1947, shows Liberty mid-stride in a flowing gown draped with a billowing flag, laurel and oak branches in her left hand for civil and military glory, her right hand extended toward a rising sun. LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the date appear on that side. The reverse presents Mercanti's heraldic eagle behind a shield, gripping arrows and an olive branch beneath thirteen five-pointed stars, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the denomination. No major die variety, doubled die or hub variety is recognized for the date. Grading services will sometimes add a parenthetical (W) or (S) based on the sealed monster box a submission arrived in, but a loose coin cannot be attributed to a mint by examination, so the designation reflects shipping provenance rather than any diagnostic difference.

Notable facts

• PCGS had certified 59,903 examples in MS70 as of April 2024, while NGC reported 102,509 in the same grade as of October 2024 and CAC 459.
• PCGS has graded more 2014 Silver Eagles in MS70 than in MS69, and NGC has been adding roughly 4,600 new MS70s per year.
• NGC has published that the West Point coins of this date were the better made of the two production sources.
• Bullion Eagles are sold to Authorized Purchasers in bulk, and much of the 2014 output remains in its original 500-coin monster boxes.
• Collector versions dated 2014 were struck at West Point with a W mintmark in both proof and burnished uncirculated finishes and sold at a premium over spot.