Silver American Eagles: "First Strikes"

The purpose of the guide is similiar to one I wrote earlier. It is intended to further educate buyers of silver eagle bullion coins about what it means when you see the term "First Strike" used in listings selling silver american eagle bullion coins.
It creates a great deal of concern and frustration for me to continue to see buyers pay substantial premiums for "First Strike" bullion silver eagles. Rolls of these coins sent to PCGSwhich are shown to have been issued within the first 30 days of their official U.S. Mint release date can be "certified" as "First Strikes". These coins are NOT graded by PCGS, they only place a label on them stating they werereceived within the 30 day period of their official release date. In reality it is only a designation.
As I previously stated, if someone wants to say theyown a coin or roll of coinsreceived from the mint within 30 days of it's official release date and attribute value to it, that is fine. However, the problem is the same as the one that, in my opinion,caused NGC to stop using the term i.e. it implies the coin is of betterquality or was one of the first struck which also implies better quality and in my opinion is misleading to the buying public.
It is hard to argue the value placed on these coins is due solely to the issue date when ,at least, those familiar with the production schedule of the mint understand that thereis no way to know when your coin was struck.
Let's use a little gemon sense here, or as some now call it "ungemon sense". What would the average buyer, unfamiliar with the mint's production schedule think when they saw the term "First Strike"? gemon sense tells you that they would assume their coin was one of the first coins of this type struck by the mint. Not so, they would be wrong.
Most, or some of us now know, after the lawsuit against NGC, the fact of the matter is, that the U.S. Mint does not keep track of when coins are stuck. We also know according to them that up to half of the coins they anticipate selling have already been struck by the official release date.
Again, you may receive a roll of coins in the first month of the official release date thatwere struck long after someone who receives a roll months later. We also know the mintchanges dies regularly to keep quality up. One die doesn't stamp 9-10 million coins annually.
So, what's driving this. First and foremost is the impetus for graders to generate business. The more coins submiited for designation the more fees generated to them. The dealers are driven by the same motive. As long as buyers continue paying premiums for this designation, which is ALL it is, the profit motive continues to drive their submission.
I'm sure I'm not making many friends with these dealers or PCGS, but let's see them put a disclaimer on these sales to consumers and see where the price and submission numbers go. I'm sure there would still be some peoplethat would purchase these coins, even with full knowledge they are of unknown strike date, but that would be their perogative. At least they would do it with full knowledge, kind of like some people will jump out of an airplane with full knowlege their chute may not open!
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