PCGS FIRST STRIKE^®
A New Way to Collect U.S. Coins

With PCGS First Strike® designation you can now expand your collection in these exciting areas:
U.S. Silver Eagles • U.S. Gold Eagles • U.S. Platinum Eagles • U.S. Buffalo Gold

Here's how PCGS identifies the coins submitted for First Strike® designation.
Beginning in 2005, PCGS began designating coins packaged and delivered by the U.S. Mint in the 30 day period following the initial sales date of a new product as First Strike®. For instance, new American Silver Eagles typically go on sale each January 1st, thus any coin packaged or delivered and submitted to PCGS for certification between January 1 and January 31 qualifies for the First Strike® designation.

The First Strike® designation is a proprietary trademark of PCGS.
According to the United States Mint, the Mint has not designated any coins as "first strike," nor does the Mint track the order in which coins are manufactured during their production. The United States Mint states that they exercise strict quality controls to assure that coins of high caliber are produced from each die set throughout its useful life. The Mint states that their manufacturing facilities use a die set as long as the quality of resulting coins meets United States Mint standards, and then replace the dies, continually changing sets throughout the production process. Coins which meet the criteria of PCGS First Strike® will be designated as a First Strike® regardless of when those coins were minted.

PCGS offers the Set Registry for collecting, organizing and competing with your First Strike® designated coins.
Here are the sets you can build to enhance your enjoyment in collecting First Strike® designated coins:

The population of PCGS First Strike® one ounce bullion coins is shown in the table below.
The number PCGS has certified in all grades is compared to the total sales of all one ounce bullion coins sold by the U.S. Mint:

	2006		2007
	U.S. Mint Sales	PCGS First Strike®	U.S. Mint Sales	PCGS First Strike®
One Ounce Gold American Eagle	201,500	23,323	147,500	2,413
One Ounce Silver American Eagle	10,021,000	151,785	9,887,000	39,434
One Ounce Platinum American Eagle	7,000	548	4,700	482

 

PCGS is one of the leading third party coin authentication and grading services, operating for over 20 years and certifying over 15 million coins. PCGS employs 15 experts with an average of 26 years of experience in the collectible coin market. In the year ended June 30, 2007, PCGS authenticated and graded 1.637 million coins with an aggregate declared value of $1.433 billion.