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After certifying just under 10,000 uncirculated 20th Anniversary American Silver Eagles (ASE) over a one year period, PCGS gave it's first perfect grade of MS70 in July of 2007.  Since that first one, PCGS has certified an average of one of these coins per day as MS70.  It appears the floodgates have opened.  (*See update at the end of this guide)

So why did they wait so long and what are they doing now?

• Could PCGS have reviewed that many coins without finding a single perfect example?
• Was there a quality difference in the first 10,000 or so boxes produced by the Mint?
• Did certain coin dealers hoard coins that they knew to be perfect examples... waiting for the right moment to certify them?  Short answer to this one is NO.  How could they examine the coins given PCGS's policy that, in order to receive the certification label "20th Anniversary", 2006 Eagles must be submitted in the original Mint-Sealed (unopened) Box (as they were sent from the U.S. Mint).  If the box is opened, PCGS will not issue the label... period.
• Or is it something else?

Let's look at a few important market factors:

• Up until August 2007, NGC had certified over 34,000 uncirculated 20th Anniversary ASE's, while PCGS has only certified 10,000.  Clearly, NGC had generated significantly more income certifying 20th Anniversary ASE's than PCGS up to this point.
• There are still quite a few ungraded, sealed boxes out there.
• Think of the stir the first few perfect PCGS 20th Anniversary ASE's would generate after a one year wait.  With less than 4 out of 1,000 perfect examples, the value of the first few certified will undoubtedly be in the multiple thousands of dollars.  Look to the right of this guide and you'll likely see a few.  Just bear in mind, however, that if it doesn't contain the words "20th Anniversary" on the label, it's not a 20th Anniversary Eagle - even if the Mint originally intended it to be so (read my more comprehensive guide on 20th Anniversary American Eagles for clarification on this point).  This is not to say that a perfect PCGS (MS70) non-20th Anniversary 2006-W ASE isn't valuable... I just don't think it'll be worth as much as it's "20th Anniversary" counterpart.

Setting aside speculation about the motives behind certification companies, what does the future hold for perfect examples of 20th Anniversary Uncirculated Eagles?

• As a review, the U.S. Mint produced two sets containing 20th Anniversary Uncirculated Silver Eagles... the three coin set with 250,000 mintage and the two coin gold/silver uncirculated set with mintage of only 20,000.
• PCGS does not distinguish between the two sets, so all PCGS graded 20th Anniversary ASE's fall into a pile of 270,000 potential candidates; and we'll never know which came from the gold/silver sets.  To some, this doesn't matter a bit, because old school says you should "buy the coin, not the label".  Maybe old school is right.  It often is.
• NGC, however, does make the distinction.  So if you're interested in owning a coin that is guaranteed to have come from the Gold/Silver set, you have to get a blue label NGC 20th Anniversary ASE (*note, NGC does not distinguish the Gold coin from the uncirculated gold coin that originated in the 3 gold coin set with mintage 10,000... however, that coin is still one of only 30,000 minted).
• Fewer than 500 of the blue label uncirculated 20th Anniversary ASE's certified by NGC made the grade of MS70.
• PCGS has certified 50 uncirculated 20th Anniversary ASE's as MS70 so far (9/20/2007); but at a rate of one a day, how many will there be next year?  It's tough to say... depends on how many unopened boxes are still out there, and on how many people with unopened boxes are willing to send them to PCGS for certification.

Will the MS70 PCGS uncirculated 20th Anniversary ASE be the coveted ASE, or will it be the blue label NGC 20th Anniversary ASE?

...Time will tell.

Good luck investors.

*Update (12/23/2007): 

After several months of observation, it appears that the floodgates have closed as quickly as they opened for the PCGS 2006-W Uncirculated American Silver Eagle.  Here are the pops as of 23 December 2007:  There are 106 2006-W MS70's without the "20th Anniversary" designation on the label, and 93 that contain the designation.  Obviously, there are even fewer with "First Strike" designation.  PCGS does not publish the number of "20th Anniversary MS70 First Strikes"; however, we know there are 36 total First Strike 2006-Ws.