Miami Valley Coin Club

2008-W Burnished Silver Eagle Reverse of ’07

In 2008, the US Mint unknowingly released an American Silver Eagle variety, the burnished 2008-W Reverse of 2007. It was only after the coins were in circulation that this error was discovered. The variety is the result of the prior year 2007 reverse die being paired with the 2008 obverse die. John Nanney from Georgia is credited with discovering the variety in April of 2008.

There are two aspects on the reverse of the coin that distinguishes this reverse of 2007 variety: The “U’ in “UNITED STATES” lacks a serif, and the dash between the words “SILVER” and “ONE” is shaped like a tilde.

The Mint found that fifteen 2007 reverse dies were mistakenly used creating 46,318 coins minted. This is only an estimate, the Mint figures each of the fifteen dies struck approximately 3,000 coins. The total mintage of 2008-W Silver Eagles was 20,583,000.

This variety is estimated to be worth 4-5 times the value of regular 2008-W burnished Silver Eagles.