I have not seen the five-ounce America the Beautiful Silver Bullion Coins. Aside from rarely seeing the circulating versions, I have no desire to purchase a five-ounce silver coin, especially from a series that does not inspire me.
What does inspire me is watching what the U.S. Mint has to go through in order to strike these coins. For those of us who love to watch how this works, the U.S. Mint’s YouTube channel has a video showing the production process.
Watch the video:
Imagine what it takes to strike these coins. According to the video, the U.S. Mint strikes the 3-inch planchettes twice with 430 tons of force. I also did not get the impact of the planchette size until I saw the video.
I also did not know about the edge lettering and that there were two different versions—a reverse proof-like as the bullion version and a matte finish for collectors. The reverse proof-like coins are beautiful. I wish they would do this with the regular proof coins because it would make a great collectible series.