America The Beautiful (5 oz Silver Coins)

Buy ATB Silver Coins

A land of diversity and multiple cultures, America has a rich cultural, historical, and scenic story to tell the world. More than two centuries of exploration, development, and protection of nature across the country, has unearthed several brilliantly exquisite spots of nature as well as historical monuments that deserve the limelight.

Aimed at giving these places their chance to shine (literally), the United States Mint started the ‘America the Beautiful’ silver coin series in 2010. With a 5-coin annual release schedule, the number of coins in this series has rapidly expanded to an impressive array over the years. Each of these large silver coins is struck using pure 0.999 purity silver bullion, with a US government guaranteed minimum weighting of five troy ounces.

The 5 oz ATB Silver Coin Series

The ‘America the Beautiful’ silver coin series took root from the popularity of the ’50 State Quarters’ program that started in 1999. Following the staggering popularity of this commemorative circulation program, the United States decided to capitalize on the opportunity to release a special silver bullion coin series in 2008, named ‘America the Beautiful’ or often initialed ATB for short.

Authorized by America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act 2008, each coin in this series has enjoyed tremendous popularity ever since. Even now, silver coin investors and collectors always eagerly await the next batch of five silver coin issuances annually.

Every 5 oz ATB Silver Coin in this series features a unique image on their reverse, portraying one of the numerous historic sites, monuments, or national parks in the United States. Although coins in ‘America the Beautiful’ (ATB) series are inspired by the 50 State Quarters program, ATB’s 5 oz silver makes them many times larger than the smaller 90% silver coins that motivated their mintage.

5 oz ATB Silver Bullion Coins vs 5 oz ATB Silver Uncirculated Coins

Although available in two variants – bullion and uncirculated, silver coin collectors tend to prefer the uncirculated versions of these coins. Silver bullion buyers typically prefer the lower prices and premiums of the 5 oz ATB Silver Bullion Coins. Each of the 5 oz ATB Silver Uncirculated Coins has an attractive matte-like finish, while the circulated bullion versions have a smooth, mirror-like surface. Moreover, the uncirculated variety is minted only at the Philadelphia facility of the United States Mint and bears its mintmark ‘P.’

US Mint ATB Silver Coin Series Minting History

Since 2010, the US Mint's Philadelphia Mint branch has been designing, striking, and producing the ATB Silver Bullion Coin Series. Silver planchets for the 5 oz ATB Silver Bullion Coin Series are supplied by Sunshine Minting Inc.

The automated silver coin producing machine, or coining press used to strike 5 oz ATB Silver Coins was installed on March 1, 2010, at the Philadelphia Mint. It is seen below producing these 5 oz America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins. This German made coining press provides up to 1,000 metric tons of pressure for each strike and can theoretically produce over 1 million ATB Silver Coins per year. Although the most 5 oz ATB ever produced in one year was in 2016, with just over a combined 325,000 bullion and uncirculated versions struck between five various 5 oz ATB Silver Coin issuances that year.

All the coins released in the ‘America the Beautiful’ program to date featured brand-new imagery of unique locations in each state, other than the coins that represented the states of Arizona, California, and South Dakota. The images used on the coins for these 3 states were replicas of the designs that were released earlier during the 50 State Quarters program.

Nevertheless, the large surface areas of these five ounce coins have allowed artists and engravers to unleash their creativity, in beautiful, eye-catching detail – a feat that isn’t possible with smaller coins. The significant amount of pure silver (5 troy ounces) make these coins an attractive investment for investors who want to diversify their portfolios. Moreover, if history is any indication, the potential for growth in value seems enormous.

5 oz ATB Silver Coin Series are Purchased Around the World

Silver bullion buyers and silver coin collectors across the globe love the unique designs on the 5 oz ATB Silver Coin's reverse side, especially the silver coins featuring locations in the United States that are famous throughout the world. Historic places like the Yellowstone National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Mount Rushmore National Memorial, among many others, need no introduction to both people residing in the United States and outside it as well.

While the reverses of these 5 oz silver coins feature beautiful images, handpicked for their beauty or historical significance, the obverse displays an elegant portrayal of George Washington. Although this left-profile portrait is inspired by the 1786 bust of President Washington, John Flanagan rendered this image for imprinting on coinage in 1932.

In addition to the silver content and beautiful designs, the limited mintages of coins in the ‘America the Beautiful’ series keep investors and collectors on their toes, trying to snag a few, before stocks run dry and keeps this product line one of the most popular of all the silver coins.

America The Beautiful Mintage Figures