There are some coins that seem almost destined to become coin rings.
The American Silver Eagle is one of them.
Large, unmistakably American, struck from one full troy ounce of .999 fine silver, and carrying one of the most recognizable designs in U.S. coinage, the American Silver Eagle gives us just about everything we could ask for when creating a handcrafted silver coin ring.
But before an American Silver Eagle ever reaches the workbench, it already has a story.
An American Silver Coin Born in 1986
The United States Mint introduced the American Silver Eagle in 1986 as the nation's official silver bullion coin.
Each coin contains one troy ounce of .999 fine silver and measures approximately 40.6 mm in diameter. Its legal-tender denomination is one dollar, although the silver contained in the coin gives it a value far beyond the number stamped on its face.
For coin collectors, silver enthusiasts and coin-ring makers alike, however, its appeal goes well beyond specifications.
Much of that appeal begins with the image of Liberty walking across its obverse.
A Design Older Than the Silver Eagle Itself
Although the American Silver Eagle first appeared in 1986, the Liberty design on its face dates back another 70 years.
Sculptor Adolph A. Weinman originally created his famous Walking Liberty design for the Walking Liberty Half Dollar introduced in 1916.
Liberty strides toward the rising sun, draped in the American flag and carrying branches of laurel and oak. It is a design representing freedom, strength and hope for the future—and it became one of the most admired designs in American coinage.
When the United States Mint created the American Silver Eagle program, Weinman's Walking Liberty was chosen to return.
That decision created an interesting connection between two coins we regularly turn into rings here at CoinCrafters: the Walking Liberty Half Dollar and the much larger American Silver Eagle.
They share the same historic Liberty artwork, but they produce two very different rings.
Why the American Silver Eagle Makes Such an Impressive Coin Ring
Size is the first thing you notice.
An American Silver Eagle starts life at 40.6 mm in diameter and contains a full troy ounce of silver. That gives us considerably more material to work with than a smaller U.S. coin.
The finished ring has a broad, substantial presence on the hand.
It isn't a subtle ring.
And that's part of what makes it special.
As the coin is transformed, portions of the original lettering and artwork travel around the band. Instead of engraving a new design onto an ordinary silver ring, we're reshaping the actual coin itself.
The details you see on the finished ring began as details struck into an authentic American Silver Eagle.
That's an important distinction to us.
The goal isn't simply to make something that looks like a coin ring.
The coin becomes the ring.
From One Ounce of Silver to Wearable History
Turning a Silver Eagle into a ring requires much more than drilling a hole through a coin and bending it into shape.
The center must first be removed accurately. The silver is then annealed—heated until the metal becomes softer and more workable.
From there, the coin gradually begins its transformation.
It is folded, formed, stretched and sized using specialized coin-ring tools. During that process, the metal has to be worked carefully so that the ring takes shape without unnecessarily destroying the original details that make the coin recognizable.
The ring is then sanded and polished before receiving its final finish.
It's a process we've refined over nearly 14 years of making coin rings.
And despite making a great many of them during that time, there is still something satisfying about watching a flat silver coin become a finished ring.
The Silver Eagle Changed in 2021
For its first 35 years, the American Silver Eagle paired Weinman's Walking Liberty obverse with a heraldic eagle reverse designed by John Mercanti.
That changed during 2021.
To commemorate the 35th anniversary of the American Eagle Coin Program, the United States Mint refreshed the Walking Liberty obverse using modern technology and introduced an entirely new reverse.
Designed by Emily Damstra and sculpted by Michael Gaudioso, the new reverse depicts an eagle approaching a landing while carrying an oak branch.
The redesign also introduced additional security features, including a variation in the coin's reeded edge.
For coin-ring enthusiasts, the change created something else interesting: another chapter in the Silver Eagle's history that can become part of the finished jewelry.
Earlier and later Silver Eagles can preserve details from distinctly different reverse designs.
A Coin Ring With Two Pieces of American Coinage History
There is something unusual about the American Silver Eagle.
It is a relatively modern American coin carrying artwork born during one of the great eras of American coin design.
A Silver Eagle struck today traces its Walking Liberty imagery back to Weinman's 1916 half dollar while also representing the modern American Eagle bullion program that began in 1986.
Turn that coin into a ring, and those histories don't disappear.
They simply take another form.
That idea is at the heart of what we do at CoinCrafters.
We don't start with a blank piece of metal and make it resemble an old coin. We begin with the genuine coin—with its date, its artwork, its lettering and its history—and transform that coin into something that can be worn.
Bigger Than a Morgan, Familiar as a Walking Liberty
For someone trying to decide which silver coin ring is right for them, the American Silver Eagle occupies an interesting place in the CoinCrafters lineup.
It offers the familiar Walking Liberty design found on our Walking Liberty Half Dollar rings, but in a much larger piece of .999 fine silver.
It's also slightly larger than a Morgan Silver Dollar, giving the finished ring a bold appearance and substantial feel.
If you prefer a narrower or more understated ring, one of the smaller historic silver coins may be a better fit.
But if you want a large American silver coin ring with an unmistakable design and plenty of presence, the Silver Eagle is difficult to beat.
From the Mint to the Workbench—and Onto Your Hand
Every coin ring begins as something else.
In this case, it begins as one troy ounce of American silver carrying a design whose history reaches back more than a century.
Then it arrives at our workshop.
It is punched, annealed, formed, stretched, sanded and polished by hand until the flat coin that arrived on the bench has become something entirely different—but still recognizably itself.
That's what makes an American Silver Eagle coin ring more than simply a piece of silver jewelry.
You can still see where it came from.
And you can wear where it goes next.
Explore our handcrafted American Silver Eagle Coin Rings:
American Silver Eagle Coin Rings
See how CoinCrafters makes coin rings by hand:
How Coin Rings Are Made
