FLOAT 100 · Coins · No. 98
1995-W Proof American Silver Eagle
The Mint tucked a single silver dollar into a $999 set of gold coins to mark a 10th birthday, and that throw-in became the key to the whole Silver Eagle series, with a perfect-grade example once selling for $86,654.70 before the market learned how many perfect coins were out there.
- Year
- 1995
- Maker
- U.S. Mint (West Point)
- By price in coins
- 87 of 100
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Create a free account- Struck
- 1995, West Point Mint (W mintmark), Proof
- Sold as
- Only inside the five-coin 10th Anniversary American Eagle Proof set, priced at $999
- Mintage
- 30,125, the number of sets sold out of 45,000 authorized
- Designers
- Obverse, Adolph A. Weinman (Walking Liberty, 1916); reverse, John M. Mercanti
- Specifications
- One troy ounce of .999 silver, 31.1 grams, 40.6 mm, reeded edge
- This entry
- Graded PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, the top grade
- Record
- $86,654.70 for a PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, March 31, 2013, when only eight had that grade
- PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo population
- 8 in 2013; 519 by April 2024
A coin born from a silver stockpile
The American Silver Eagle grew out of a long fight over the silver in the Defense National Stockpile. Several administrations wanted to sell it; mining states and military-minded legislators resisted, and every announced sale knocked down the silver price. Senator James A. McClure argued that if the silver had to be sold, it should go out as coins rather than be dumped on the market.
In June 1985 McClure attached his Liberty Coin Act to the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island commemorative coin bill. The Senate agreed the same day, the House approved three days later, and President Ronald Reagan signed it on July 9, 1985, as Title II of Public Law 99-61. The first Silver Eagle was struck in San Francisco on October 29, 1986, with Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III pressing the button, and the coins went on sale November 24, 1986.
Each Silver Eagle holds one troy ounce of 99.9 percent silver and carries a face value of one dollar. The Mint struck bullion coins for investors and Proof coins for collectors, and through 1994 a collector could keep a complete Proof set for a modest yearly outlay.
Two designs, eighty years apart
The obverse is Adolph A. Weinman's Walking Liberty, first used on the half dollar from 1916 to 1947 and revived because it was one of the best-loved American coin designs. Liberty strides toward the rising sun, draped in the flag, carrying laurel and oak branches. The numismatic historian Roger Burdette has argued that Weinman drew inspiration from Oscar Roty's Sower on French coins.
The reverse, used from 1986 to 2021, is a heraldic eagle behind a shield by John M. Mercanti, with 13 stars above it, an olive branch in one talon and arrows in the other. Mercanti later became the Mint's 12th Chief Engraver. On the 1995-W, the W mintmark of the West Point Mint sits beneath one of the eagle's talons, with Mercanti's initials JM beneath the other.
The $999 anniversary set
To mark ten years of the American Eagle program, the Mint issued a five-coin 10th Anniversary set in 1995: Proof gold Eagles in one-ounce, half-ounce, quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce sizes, plus a Proof Silver Eagle struck at West Point. It was the first Proof Silver Eagle to carry the W mintmark. The set cost $999, the same price the Mint was charging for the four-coin gold Proof set, and marketers pitched the silver dollar as a bonus for gold buyers.
Silver Eagle collectors were not pleased. Their Proof sets, cheaply kept complete through 1994, were suddenly incomplete unless they bought an expensive gold set. Coin World figured that a buyer who wanted only the silver coin paid a net of roughly $200 for it, against $23 for the regular 1995-P Proof Silver Eagle, of which the Mint sold 438,511.
At that price the set sold poorly. Congress had authorized 45,000; only 30,125 were sold, and that is the 1995-W mintage. It remained the lowest-mintage Silver Eagle until the 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof, limited to 30,000. Many sets were later broken up, with the gold and silver coins sold separately.
From eight perfect coins to hundreds
The 1995-W was always known as a condition rarity. When John Mercanti and Michael "Miles" Standish published their guide to the series in 2012, PCGS had graded just five coins Proof 70. In a 2011 book on the 100 greatest modern U.S. coins, two numismatic authors called it the King of the Silver Eagles and ranked it fourth.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo had brought $40,000 at an online auction that closed March 15, 2010. Then on March 31, 2013, another sold at an online auction for $86,654.70, a $78,777 closing bid plus a 10 percent fee, after 104 bids from 21 bidders. The head of the auction firm said the buyer had waited years for a premium example of the key date. At that moment PCGS had graded only eight coins PR70 Deep Cameo.
The record drew coins out. Within about a year the PCGS population of 70s rose from eight to 104, partly because owners sent coins graded by NGC to PCGS. A PCGS 70 sold for $41,125 at auction in 2014, $16,450 in August 2017, $19,125 on February 13, 2022, after bidding among 15 bidders, $16,800 in January 2023, $14,400 in March 2024, $12,000 in August 2024 and $12,600 in October 2024. By April 2024 the PCGS population in PR70 Deep Cameo stood at 519.
Writers at CoinWeek have called it perhaps the most overhyped coin in numismatics and warned that buyers at the peak suffered heavy losses. They estimated in 2024 that close to 20 percent of 1995-Ws submitted to PCGS were now grading 70, and noted that about three-quarters of the anniversary sets remained uncertified.
How to know one
Look for the W mintmark beneath the eagle's talon on the reverse and the 1995 date below Liberty's foot on the obverse. The coin weighs 31.1 grams, measures 40.6 millimeters, has a reeded edge and is .999 fine silver.
Many graded examples carry special signature labels, such as John Mercanti's or Don Everhart's. Prices for comparable coins differ by grading service: in 2024 CoinWeek put the going level at about $17,000 for a PCGS 70 and $13,000 for an NGC 70.
The numbers
- Mintage
- 30,125 (sets sold; 45,000 authorized)
- Weight
- 31.1 grams (one troy ounce of fine silver)
- Diameter
- 40.6 mm
- Composition
- .999 silver
- Edge
- Reeded
- Designers
- Adolph A. Weinman (obverse), John M. Mercanti (reverse)
- PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo population
- 5 (2012), 8 (March 2013), 104 (within about a year), 519 (April 2024)
- NGC PF70 Ultra Cameo population
- 946 (February 2025)
Timeline
Adolph A. Weinman's Walking Liberty design first appears on the half dollar.
President Reagan signs the Liberty Coin Act, authorizing the Silver Eagle.
The first Silver Eagle is struck in San Francisco.
The Mint releases the American Silver Eagle.
The Mint issues the 10th Anniversary set at $999, including the first W-mint Proof Silver Eagle; 30,125 sets sell.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo sells for $40,000 at an online auction, then the record for any Silver Eagle.
A book on modern U.S. coins ranks the 1995-W fourth and calls it the King of the Silver Eagles.
PCGS population of Proof 70 coins stands at five.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo sells for a record $86,654.70; eight are known in that grade at PCGS.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo sells at auction for $41,125, less than half the record.
The 2019-S Enhanced Reverse Proof, limited to 30,000, goes on sale and takes the low-mintage title.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo sells for $19,125 after 15 bidders compete.
PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo population reaches 519.
A PCGS PR70 Deep Cameo sells at auction for $12,600.
The world in 1995
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 4,000 for the first time.
The Oklahoma City bombing kills 168 people at the Murrah Federal Building.
Space Shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir space station for the first time.
Microsoft releases Windows 95.
Cal Ripken Jr. breaks baseball's record for consecutive games played.
O. J. Simpson is found not guilty of double murder.
The Million Man March is held in Washington, D.C.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 15, 2010 | $40,000 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, online auction; then the record for any Silver Eagle. |
| Mar 31, 2013 | $86,655 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, online auction; $78,777 bid plus 10% fee. Record. |
| 2014 | $41,125 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, sold at auction at the 2014 Central States show. |
| Aug 2017 | $16,450 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo. |
| Feb 13, 2022 | $19,125 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo, online auction, 15 bidders. |
| Jan 25, 2023 | $16,800 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo with John Mercanti signature label. |
| Mar 18, 2024 | $14,400 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo with a Mint official's signature label. |
| Aug 28, 2024 | $12,000 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo. |
| Oct 21, 2024 | $12,600 | Sold at auctionPCGS PR70 Deep Cameo. |
A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.
By reference price, 1995-W Proof American Silver Eagle is number 87 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (98 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- The 1995-W was never sold on its own; the only way to get one from the Mint was to buy a $999 set of four gold coins.
- Congress authorized 45,000 anniversary sets, but only 30,125 sold, about 67 percent.
- The regular 1995 Proof Silver Eagle from Philadelphia cost $23, and the Mint sold 438,511 of them.
- When the $86,654.70 record was set in 2013, PCGS had graded only eight coins PR70 Deep Cameo; by 2024 the count was 519.
- Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III struck the first Silver Eagle in 1986, joking that he didn't need a pick and shovel to start a San Francisco silver rush.
- The silver for the early Silver Eagles came from the Defense National Stockpile.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026