2016-(P) ASE MS70 PCGS Struck at Philadelphia Thomas Cleveland signed

This is a relatively rare, mint state Philadelphia struck American Silver Eagle graded MS70 by PCGS with the much sought after Thomas Cleveland Freedom Label. It is a stunningly beautiful coin embellished by the US Mint's Master Designer's signature with an interesting story of investigative "coin journalism" of how a subset of 2015, 2016, and 2017 Mint State bullion American Silver Eagles were released by the West Point Mint, but were, in fact, minted in Philadelphia. They were only identifiable by certain serial numbers, in otherwise generically banded and sealed green Monster Boxes that The US Mint ultimately acknowledged, after being pressed for this information under The Freedom of Information Act by Coin World in early 2017. Tragically, if these sealed generic Monster Boxes were opened prematurely without the presence of a third party grader there at the opening, the 500 coins in the box are considered minted in West Point by default since there has never been a mint mark on any of the mint state Silver Eagles ever produced, and thus the coins in the unsealed Monster Box would lose their unique certification of (P) for Philadelphia minted. Although this issue of "stealthy mint identification" was somewhat flippantly disregarded by The US Mint, the (P) designation by graders (such as PCGS) of these Silver Eagles is highly relevant to its value for sellers and collectors due to its much lower mintage, further reduced by unwary Authorized Purchasers or subsequent Monster Box buyers.

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