SEPTEMBER 3
2026•250th-Anniversary American Palladium Eagle Released
1992•David J. Ryder Appointed Mint Director
2026•Calvin Coolidge Silver Medal Released
The 250th-Anniversary American Palladium Eagle Is Released
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On September 3, 2026, the United States Mint released a one-year-only American Eagle One Ounce Palladium Uncirculated Coin created for the nation’s 250th anniversary. Struck at the West Point Mint, the $25 coin carried the dual dates “1776 ~ 2026” and a special Liberty Bell privy mark containing the numeral “250.” With a mintage limit of only 5,000 pieces, it was one of the most tightly limited collector issues in the young American Palladium Eagle series.
The coin combined distinctly 2026 anniversary elements with designs more than a century old. Its obverse used Adolph A. Weinman’s famous Winged Liberty from the 1916 dime, while its reverse adapted Weinman’s eagle from the 1907 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal. Each coin contained one troy ounce of 99.95 percent pure palladium and bore the W mint mark of West Point.
Orders opened at noon Eastern Daylight Time on September 3. During the first 24 hours, the Mint imposed a household order limit of one coin. The release therefore represented several things at once: a Semiquincentennial commemorative treatment, a low-mintage modern precious-metal issue, another chapter in the American Eagle program, and a new use of some of the most celebrated artwork in United States numismatics.
A Special Coin for America’s 250th Anniversary
The year 2026 marked 250 years since the Declaration of Independence in 1776. The United States Mint used the Semiquincentennial as an opportunity to place special anniversary devices and designs on a broad range of coins and medals. The palladium Eagle joined that celebration with two unmistakable features.
First, the usual single year was replaced by the dual dates “1776 ~ 2026.” Second, the coin received a Liberty Bell privy mark containing the numeral “250.” The Mint described the palladium piece as a special one-year issue, making those features identifying characteristics of the 2026 edition rather than permanent alterations to the series.
The Liberty Bell is an especially fitting symbol for the anniversary. Closely associated with Philadelphia and the American founding era, it has become one of the nation’s most recognizable symbols of independence and liberty. On the Palladium Eagle, the small bell privy exists alongside Weinman’s Winged Liberty, joining imagery associated with the Revolution to artwork from the American coinage renaissance of the early twentieth century.
September 3 Was the Official On-Sale Date
The Mint announced the release on September 1, 2026, stating that it would begin accepting orders on September 3 at noon EDT. Its official 2026 product schedule likewise lists September 3 for the American Eagle 2026 One Ounce Palladium Uncirculated Coin, item 26EK.
That distinction is important for a date-based history. September 1 was the date of the Mint’s press announcement; September 3 was the scheduled and actual public sales launch. Contemporary numismatic coverage published on September 3 reported the coin going on sale that day.
The Mint set both the mintage limit and product limit at 5,000 pieces. The initial household order limit was one coin during the first 24 hours, a restriction intended to distribute purchasing opportunities more broadly during the high-demand opening period.
The issue was priced through the Mint’s precious-metals pricing system rather than by a permanently fixed catalog price. Contemporary release-day reporting placed its opening price at $1,895. Because palladium products are subject to adjustments as the underlying metal market changes, later Mint product pages can display a different price from the one seen when sales opened.
One Troy Ounce of .9995 Fine Palladium
The 2026 coin has a legal-tender denomination of $25, but its face value is only one part of its identity. Each piece contains one troy ounce of palladium with a fineness of .9995, or 99.95 percent pure palladium.
Official Mint specifications give the coin a diameter of 1.340 inches, or 34.03 millimeters, with a reeded edge. It was struck at West Point and carries the W mint mark. Its finish is officially described as uncirculated.
For collector precious-metal coins, denomination and intrinsic value can differ enormously. The $25 inscription establishes the piece as legal-tender United States coinage, while the palladium content, production limit, collector finish, anniversary treatment and market demand determine most of its commercial value.
The American Eagle precious-metal program began in 1986 with gold and silver coins. Platinum Eagles followed in 1997. Palladium became the fourth metal represented when the Mint launched the American Palladium Eagle bullion coin in 2017.
The palladium program grew from the American Eagle Palladium Bullion Coin Act of 2010, Public Law 111-303. The resulting coin was specified as a one-ounce, .9995-fine palladium piece with a $25 denomination.
The first 2017 coins were bullion products distributed through the Mint’s Authorized Purchaser system rather than sold directly to ordinary retail customers. Collector editions followed beginning in 2018, allowing the Mint to use proof, reverse proof and uncirculated finishes.
By 2026, the Palladium Eagle was still a relatively young series compared with the Gold and Silver Eagles. That made the Semiquincentennial issue one of the first major national-anniversary variations in the palladium program’s history.
The obverse is dominated by a high-relief version of Adolph A. Weinman’s Winged Liberty portrait. The design first appeared on the dime introduced in 1916 and remained on that denomination through 1945.
The coin is popularly known as the “Mercury dime,” although Weinman did not depict the Roman god Mercury. The portrait represents Liberty wearing a winged cap. The resemblance to classical representations of Mercury produced a nickname so durable that “Mercury dime” remains the standard collector term more than a century later.
On the Palladium Eagle, the design is enlarged and rendered in high relief, giving Weinman’s sculptural modeling more physical presence than it could have on the small ten-cent piece. The 2026 inscriptions include LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST and the special dual date 1776 ~ 2026, along with Weinman’s initials.
The 2026 treatment therefore creates a remarkable visual bridge across American history: a Liberty portrait created during the First World War era now carries dates connecting the Declaration of Independence with its 250th anniversary.
An Eagle From Weinman’s Medallic Art
The reverse is also Weinman’s work, but it did not originate on a circulating United States coin. It is a high-relief adaptation of the reverse of the 1907 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.
The composition features an eagle and branch. On the palladium coin it is surrounded by inscriptions including UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $25, 1 OZ. Pd, .9995 FINE and E PLURIBUS UNUM.
This makes the American Palladium Eagle unusual among modern U.S. precious-metal series. Both major sides are historic Weinman designs, but they came from different original purposes: the obverse from circulating coinage and the reverse from medallic art.
When the Mint introduced the Palladium Eagle in 2017, it emphasized that the eagle design had never previously appeared on a United States coin. The program effectively transformed a historic medal reverse into the permanent reverse of a federal precious-metal coin.
Adolph A. Weinman’s Continuing Influence
Adolph A. Weinman occupies an extraordinary position in American numismatic art. In 1916 he created not only the Winged Liberty dime but also the Walking Liberty half dollar, another design that later became the face of a modern American Eagle program.
Walking Liberty was revived for the American Silver Eagle in 1986. Winged Liberty became the obverse of the American Palladium Eagle in 2017. As a result, Weinman’s work anchors two different American Eagle series using two different precious metals.
The palladium series goes further by placing his art on both sides. A collector holding the 2026 coin is therefore looking at a modern West Point product whose fundamental visual identity comes almost entirely from an artist working in the first decades of the twentieth century.
That continuity is one reason Weinman remains so important to modern U.S. coinage. His designs were not merely admired as historical artifacts; they proved adaptable enough to become central images on twenty-first-century bullion and collector coins.
The word “uncirculated” can have different meanings in numismatics. It can describe the condition of an ordinary coin that has never entered circulation, but the Mint also uses Uncirculated as a specific collector-product finish.
The 2026 Palladium Eagle belongs to the latter category. It was manufactured as a collector coin and sold directly as a numismatic product. It was not a $25 coin intended to pass from cash register to cash register.
The distinction matters because the palladium series has intentionally appeared in several forms. The first 2017 issue was bullion. The first collector version in 2018 was proof. The Mint then employed reverse proof and uncirculated finishes in later years, creating a series in which surface treatment became an important part of each annual issue’s identity.
For 2026, the uncirculated finish combined with the special dual date and privy mark to distinguish the anniversary coin from earlier Palladium Eagles even though the underlying Weinman designs remained familiar.
The Lowest Announced Cap Yet for the Series
The 5,000-coin mintage limit was exceptionally small even by Palladium Eagle standards. Earlier issues had been authorized in quantities ranging from several thousand to tens of thousands. By the middle of the 2020s, actual sales and announced limits had generally trended downward.
The 2025 reverse proof, for example, had a 6,000-coin limit and ultimately recorded sales below that ceiling. For 2026, the Mint lowered the maximum to 5,000.
A mintage limit is not automatically the same thing as final audited mintage or final sales. It is the maximum quantity authorized for the product. That distinction is important when discussing modern Mint products: a 5,000-piece limit does not by itself prove that exactly 5,000 finished coins were ultimately sold.
Early post-release Mint reporting nevertheless showed demand consuming most of the authorized quantity quickly. Contemporary reporting based on the Mint’s September 9 sales report cited 4,778 coins sold. That figure represented more than 95 percent of the announced ceiling and reinforced the issue’s status as a tightly distributed modern release.
The 2026 coin also belongs to a broader modern trend: the use of privy marks and special inscriptions to create event-specific American Eagle varieties without replacing the basic design.
A privy mark is distinct from a mint mark. The W identifies West Point as the production facility. The Liberty Bell containing “250” is a commemorative device marking the Semiquincentennial. Both can appear on the same coin because they communicate different information.
This distinction is particularly important for collectors cataloging the 2026 issue. Calling the Liberty Bell a mint mark would be inaccurate. West Point’s W is the mint mark; the bell is the anniversary privy.
The combination of a dual date and a privy gives the coin an immediately recognizable one-year appearance while preserving the Weinman designs that define the palladium series.
A Modern Coin Built From Three Eras of American History
The 2026 Palladium Eagle brings together three distinct historical periods.
The first is the founding era. The dates 1776 and 2026, along with the Liberty Bell, refer directly to the birth of the United States and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
The second is the artistic renaissance of American coinage in the early twentieth century. Weinman’s 1907 medal eagle and 1916 Winged Liberty provide the coin’s principal artwork.
The third is the modern bullion and collector-coin era. The American Eagle program began in 1986, palladium joined it in 2017, and advanced modern production at West Point transformed Weinman’s historic designs into a one-ounce .9995-fine precious-metal coin.
Few coins combine those periods so explicitly. The result is not a reproduction of an eighteenth-century coin, nor simply a reissue of a twentieth-century dime. It is a modern American Eagle designed to make historical continuity part of its appeal.
The September 3, 2026 release deserves a precise place in the American coin-history calendar because it records the moment the public could order this special Semiquincentennial Palladium Eagle from the United States Mint.
The Mint had announced the product two days earlier, but September 3 was the sales launch. At noon Eastern time, collectors were offered a one-ounce .9995-fine palladium coin from West Point carrying the dual dates 1776 ~ 2026 and the Liberty Bell “250” privy, under an announced mintage ceiling of only 5,000.
It was simultaneously old and new: one of the newest members of the American Eagle family, made from a metal with almost no traditional role in United States coinage, yet bearing artwork by Adolph A. Weinman that reaches back to 1907 and 1916.
For the nation’s 250th anniversary, that mixture was fitting. Rather than discard the past for an entirely new palladium design, the Mint preserved Weinman’s celebrated imagery and marked it with the dates and symbol of a singular American anniversary. The September 3 release thus became a small but distinctive chapter in both the Semiquincentennial coinage of 2026 and the continuing history of the American Eagle program.
ALSO ON THIS DAY
1992 — David J. Ryder Appointed Mint Director — David J. Ryder Appointed Mint Director
2026 — Calvin Coolidge Silver Medal Released — The U.S. Mint opened sales for the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Silver Medal.