American Eagle Fifty Dollar Platinum 1997 to Date

The half-ounce platinum eagle carries a $50 face value and was one of four sizes the Mint struck when the platinum program began in 1997. Public Law 104-208, signed in 1996, left its weight, size and designs to the Treasury, and the Mint chose the same designs for all four sizes; only the weight and value on the reverse change.

Each year the Mint sold a bullion version through its authorized purchasers, who resell to the public, and a proof directly to collectors. From 2006 to 2008 it added a burnished collector coin. At the end of 2008 the Mint stopped making the fractional sizes, so the half-ounce series runs for twelve years. For the program as a whole and the later one-ounce coins, see the one-ounce guide.

• Bullion: no mint mark. NGC records Philadelphia as the producing mint. The designs never changed: Mercanti's Statue of Liberty and Rogers's eagle flying over the sun.
• Proof: West Point, with a W. The reverse changed almost every year after 1997, following the one-ounce proof: the Vistas of Liberty landscapes of 1998-2002, single designs in 2003, 2004 and 2005, and the three branches of government in the Foundations of Democracy reverses of 2006-2008.
• Burnished: West Point, with a W, on burnished blanks, 2006-2008, with that year's proof reverse.
• Reverse proof: only in 2007, and only in the 10th Anniversary set.

These are the Mint's sales as Wikipedia reproduces them: bullion coins sold to authorized purchasers, collector coins sold to the public. Proof totals include coins sold in sets.

Wikipedia prints 32,419 for the 1998 bullion coin; a dealer reference gives 32,415, the figure used here (search).

• 2007 10th Anniversary set. For the program's tenth year the Mint sold a set of two half-ounce coins with the 2007 executive-branch reverse: a proof and the first platinum reverse proof. It went on sale December 13, 2007, limited to one set per household for the first week, with a maximum of 30,000 sets. Wikipedia reports 14,682 sales in the first week and 19,583 in all when sales ended on December 31, 2008, after several price changes and pauses as platinum moved. Those set proofs are why the 2007 proof shows 25,519.
• 2007 Frosted FREEDOM. On the regular 2007 proof the word FREEDOM, on the banner over the eagle's shield, is mirror-polished. On 21 pre-production half-ounce coins it was left frosted, and the Mint said they reached collectors by mistake. The first known example turned up in June 2011. See the Frosted FREEDOM coin.
• Burnished coins. The 2006, 2007 and 2008 burnished half-ounce coins were sold by the Mint directly to collectors. Their satin surface resembles a bullion coin's, but the W and the proof reverse of their year set them apart.

The reverse also reads 1/2 OZ. and $50, which separates the coin from the other sizes of the same design.

• Composition: 99.95% platinum
• Weight: 0.5003 troy ounce gross, about 15.56 grams (Wikipedia; NGC lists 15.55 g), half an ounce of platinum
• Diameter: 27.0 mm
• Thickness: 1.75 mm
• Edge: reeded
• Face value: $50
• Designers: John Mercanti (obverse); Thomas D. Rogers (reverse of bullion coins); the yearly collector reverses are listed on the one-ounce guide