American Eagle Twenty Five Dollar Gold 1986 to Date

The half-ounce American Gold Eagle comes from the Gold Bullion Coin Act of 1985, Public Law 99-185, which President Reagan signed in December 1985. Written into 31 U.S.C. 5112, it gave the $25 piece a diameter of 27.0 mm and a weight of 16.966 grams holding half a troy ounce of fine gold. The same law required reeded edges and named the inscriptions, and it told the Treasury to buy newly mined American gold for the coins, falling back on government reserves only if none could be had at the world price. Nothing could be sold before October 1, 1986.

The law priced the coins at the market value of their gold plus the cost of making and selling them, and told the Treasury to sell in bulk at a discount. In practice bullion coins leave the Mint only through its authorized purchasers, large firms that buy in bulk and supply dealers, so each year's bullion figure counts the coins of that date the Mint delivered to them. Proof and burnished coins are different: the Mint offers them to collectors itself, one at a time or packed in sets.

• Bullion half-ounce coins have been issued every year since 1986 and carry no mint mark. Where the early ones were struck is unsettled. NGC files them under Philadelphia; Wikipedia credits West Point with the 1986 production, and Greysheet marks West Point as likely (search). For 2021 the Mint's own production table, printed by Coin World, puts all gold bullion Eagles at West Point.
• Proof half-ounce coins started in 1987, a year after the one-ounce proof. They were struck at Philadelphia and marked P through 1993, and at West Point with a W from 1994. No proof was made in 2009. Besides the single coins, the Mint has sold four-coin proof sets of all sizes since 1988, and the half-ounce proof also went into the 1987 two-coin set, the 1993 Philadelphia set and the 1995 10th Anniversary set.
• Burnished half-ounce coins (the Mint's "uncirculated" product) exist for 2006, 2007 and 2008 only, each with a W from West Point.

• 1986: bullion alone, with the Roman date MCMLXXXVI; 599,566 coins by the Mint's count. There was no half-ounce proof that year.
• 1987-P proof: the first half-ounce proof, struck at Philadelphia. The Mint's figure is 143,398, which includes the coins in the year's two-coin set with the one-ounce proof.
• 1994-W proof: the first half-ounce proof from West Point, 44,584 by the Mint's figures.
• Burnished coins: 2006-W 15,164, 2007-W 11,455 and 2008-W 16,682. The 2008 figure counts 7,622 coins sold in the Double Prosperity set, according to goldeagleguide.
• 2009: bullion only, 110,000 coins; the Mint struck no proofs that year.
• 2016-2018 proofs: single coins plus set coins come to 23,584 for 2016, 12,707 for 2017 and 9,959 for 2018 in the Mint's sales reports.
• 2021: both reverses. The Mint's 2021 table lists 31,000 Type 1 bullion coins and 65,000 Type 2, all struck at West Point. West Point also made proofs with the old reverse and the new one. The Mint still lists both in its sales reports, but their totals, set coins included, have stood at 9,786 and 12,240 since at least September 2025.
• 2026-W proof: marks the nation's 250th anniversary with the dates 1776 ~ 2026 and a Liberty Bell privy mark bearing the number 250. It was on sale when this guide was written.

Size. The half-ounce coin measures 27 mm, between the 22 mm quarter-ounce and the 32.7 mm one-ounce coin, and its reverse reads 1/2 OZ. FINE GOLD and 25 DOLLARS.

Date. Coins of 1986 through 1991 carry Roman numerals; from 1992 the year is in Arabic figures.

Reverse. Type 1 coins, 1986 into 2021, show Miley Busiek's design of a male eagle bringing an olive branch to a nest where the female and young wait; it was modeled by Sherl Joseph Winter. Type 2 coins, from 2021, show Jennie Norris's eagle head in close profile, modeled by Renata Gordon. Type 2 coins also have the reworked Liberty side and, the Mint says, a variation in the edge reeding added for security.

Finish and mint mark. A proof shows frosted figures on mirror fields and a P (1987-1993) or W (from 1994). A burnished coin of 2006-2008 has the W without the proof surface. A bullion coin shows no letter.

• Metal: 91.67% gold with 3% silver and copper for the balance (22 karat)
• Gross weight: 16.966 g
• Fine gold: 0.5 troy oz, about 15.55 g
• Diameter: 27.0 mm
• Thickness: 2.24 mm, per Wikipedia
• Edge: reeded
• Denomination: $25
• Design: obverse after Augustus Saint-Gaudens; reverse by Miley Busiek through 2021 (Type 1) and by Jennie Norris since 2021 (Type 2)