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Silver Eagle Mint "Varieties"

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Over the past few years, some MS silver eagles have been produced at different mints but with no mint marks, meaning there's no superficially obvious way to tell them apart. Nevertheless, if the coins are shipped directly from the mint, meaning there's clear packaging that indicates where they are from, then NGC labels the coin as "Struck at West Point Mint" or "Struck at San Francisco Mint". Further, there's a registry set that treats these minting differences as "varieties". So far, so good. But I've got two questions:

 

(1) Have there been any other US coins in the past that come from different mints but have no mint mark differentiation?

 

(2) If observant researchers eventually figure out a way to distinguish between the mints by looking at the coins alone (by die differences for example), should that change the current analysis? For instance, should the different source mints become regular slots in the main registries since it's now possible to determine from the coin itself? It's an interesting twist.

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1) all coins minted in 1965, 1966 and 1967 as none have mintmarks and also produced in Denver and San Francisco

 

2) for Morgan dollars, some people can frequently tell from strike and luster. Also meturallurgy can be used to find trace elements to differentiate sometimes as the silver was only 90%

 

 

As far as Silver Eagles, I have not heard of any way to differentiate.

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The dies were all made with the same process and then sent to san francisco. So there can not be any differences. The only difference was the banding straps on the monster boxes. The straps had the mint printed on them. There is no other packaging on the bullion coins.

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Have there been any other US coins in the past that come from different mints but have no mint mark differentiation?

The 1840 medium letters half dollar has no mintmark but was struck in New Orleans

 

1922 cents were all struck in Denver but due to worn dies and excessive polishing some cents were issued without mintmarks.

 

In 1968, 69, and 70 Philadelphia did not strike nickels but some no mintmark coins exist for the same reason as the 1922 "plain" cents. But you can't tell if they came from Denver or San Francisco.

 

As mentioned earlier all coins from 1965 - 67 had no mintmarks no matter what mint they came from. But Philadelphia did not strike nickels in 1966 or 67.

 

ALL 1967 no mintmark half dollars were struck in Denver.

 

From 1975 thru 1986 cents were struck at West Point with no mintmarks, but they can't be told from the coins struck at Philadelphia.

 

From 1976 to 1979 West Point struck quarters without mintmarks, but they can't be told from the Philadelphia.

 

So the only coins that appear to be from one mint but which can definitely be identified as being from a different specific mint are the 1840 medium letters half, the 1922 "plain" cent and the 1967 half dollar.

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