2008-W Silver Eagle Transitional Variety

The 2008-W Silver Eagle has been found to have two different reverse types, one of which is being referred to as the 2007 Reverse and the other the 2008 Reverse. NGC was the first to report about the variety on the Web, although Leesburg, Georgia collector John Nanney had reported a specimen a day earlier to Coin World, and thus earns discovery credit. This transitional variety can only be found on the 2008-W Silver Eagles minted at West Point, and sold originally through the U.S. Mint Web site. This variety will not found on the "generic" 2008 Silver Eagles. The variety is a called a "transitional" variety because the variety is the result of a transition at the Mint from one master die type to another. (A master die type is properly called a hub.)

The U.S. Mint press relations office provided some interesting information about this variety and the minting of Silver Eagles in general. Here are some of the facts they provided:

• Approximately 47,000 2008-W Silver Eagles were released with the 2007 reverse type.



• The reason for the change in hub is that the Mint has upgraded from using hand-engraved hub creation methods, to digital engraving methods.



• The Mint believes that 15 dies with the 2007 Reverse type were involved.



• The variety was created during 3 production shifts, which is how the Mint arrived at its estimate of the number of coins involved.



• The U.S. Mint marketing materials depicted the 2007 reverse type.



• The Mint did not plan for the hub change to happen mid-year, and has confirmed it was unintentional that the 2007 Reverses were used for 2008.

So, what does all of this tell us? First of all, we learn some fascinating facts about West Point Mint Silver Eagle production. If 15 dies and 47,000 coins were affected, some simple math tells us that each die pair is only striking about 3,133 coins, which is incredibly low by modern minting standards, even for Proof coins. By comparison, each penny die is believed to strike nearly 1,000,000 coins! Proof dies are believed to strike between 5,000 to 15,000 coins. So why is the West Point Mint Silver Eagle die life so short? The answer is probably that the U.S. Mint is taking very great care in trying to produce extremely high-quality W-mint Silver Eagles.

Now, can we use these same numbers to extrapolate the production rates for normal bullion Silver Eagles? The W mint-marked coins are a premium product, somewhere between business strike and Proof in quality, or so we thought. The evidence here seems to indicate that the Mint is applying Proof quality standards to these coins even if they lack the mirror finishes and frosted devices most Proof coins have. However, there isn't a great deal of difference between the finishes of a normal bullion Silver Eagle and a W-mint one. The Mint says that the blanks for the W's are specially burnished but I honestly can't see any difference, even under a 10x loupe. Therefore, I think it's reasonable to conclude that regular Silver Eagle dies get about the same ratio of coins per die as the W coins do. Maybe by changing the hub, the Mint was also hoping to get more life from the dies?

Several readers reported that the U.S. Mint's marketing materials for the 2008-W Silver Eagle depicted the 2007 Reverse type. The first of these reports came from Konrad Wilder of Elberton, Georgia, who forwarded to me the U.S. Mint's email brochure for the coins. I've also seen scans of the Mint's printed brochures, and seen that the U.S. Mint Web site (as of the time I write this) also shows the 2007 Silver Eagle hub type, but folks, this isn't just a 2007 reverse matched to a 2008 obverse! Look closely and you'll see that the 2008-dated obverse also has the lettering style of the 2007 hub! It looks like the marketing department Photoshopped the 2008 date onto the images of the 2007 coins and went with it! I can't help but wonder if the Mint's marketing department thought that collectors simply wouldn't notice, or whether the marketing department just doesn't give a darn what the collectors think. Knowing what I know of federal bureaucracies, my guess is that these thoughts never even occurred to them at all!

More About Silver Eagles and Related Topics:

• How to Tell if Your 2008 Silver Eagle Has the Transitional Variety



• Does the U.S. Mint Make Error Coins on Purpose to Help Sell Coins?



• How to Detect Fake Silver Eagles

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