The 2003 American Silver Eagles showed a significant decline in their bullion mintage numbers but also returned a hefty improvement on the number of proof Eagles struck.
Bullion Eagle mintage for the year dropped by 2,044,018 from 2002. While significant, this decline still resulted in the bullion coins reaching a sales status of 8,495,008. This is because the previous year saw the second highest mintage for the strikes since they first debuted back in 1986.
The silver market continued its second year of increases after bottoming out in 2001 at $4.37 an ounce average. 2003 started out on a relative high note with one day in early January coming in at $4.91 an ounce. Unfortunately, the market depressed a bit the next few months but recovered by December to average $4.88 an ounce for the year.
Below is a table showing the monthly totals for bullion coins sold (this table reflects only the total number of coins sold each month and may include strikes minted in other years):
2003 Bullion Silver Eagles Sold
| January | 1,725,000 | July | 280,000 | |
| February | 1,055,000 | August | 535,000 | |
| March | 876,000 | September | 475,000 | |
| April | 434,000 | October | 705,500 | |
| May | 245,000 | November | 370,000 | |
| June | 468,000 | December | 1,985,000 |
Proof Silver Eagles proved quite popular for the year with a mintage of 747,831 – a number extremely close to the mintage cap in place of 750,000 strikes. In fact, the 2003 proof numbers were high enough to propel it into the third best year for the strikes up to that point. It only came in behind the debut year for the series of 1986 which had 1,446,778 sold and the following 1987 number of 904,732.
Designs featured on the coins remained the same as they had since that debut of 1986. On the obverse, Adolph A. Weinman 1916 "Walking Liberty" Half Dollar image was still used while the reverse showed a heraldic eagle designed by John Mercanti.
Specifications also remained untouched from their debut. Each coin was struck from one ounce of 99.9% pure silver to a diameter of 1.598 inches and a thickness of .0017 inches.
The US Mint charged $24 per 2003 Proof Silver Eagle ordered – the same price as it had the previous year.
2003 Silver Eagle Mintages
| Bullion Mintage: | 8,495,008 |
| Proof Mintage: | 747,831 |
2003 Silver Eagle Specifications
| Weight: | 31.101 grams (1.000 ounces) |
| Diameter: | 1.598 inches (40.60 mm) |
| Thickness: | 0.117 inches (2.98 mm) |
| Composition: | 99.93% silver, 0.07% copper |
2003 Silver Eagle Design
| Mint Mark: | Bullion – None, Proof – ‘W’ |
| Edge: | Reeded |
| Obverse Designer: | Adolph A. Weinman |
| Reverse Designer: | John Mercanti |
2003 Silver Eagles on eBay