From the tail end of 2025 into what is now early 2026, the precious metals market has catapulted into the highest prices it's ever seen across the board. That includes silver, gold, palladium, and platinum, with the latter increasing over $1,500 in the past six months alone. While not as highly invested in or collected numismatically, platinum bullion has made its mark on the hobby ever since its founding in the late 1990s. However, it’s shortly lived bullion edition series features a year that Whitman Publishing has recognized on their 100 Greatest United States Modern Coins list, signaling to the hobby that maybe it deserves more attention, especially in today’s numismatic climate. Authors Jeff Garrett and Scott Schechter will talk us through this top 35 pick from the second edition of the series.
#32 – 2006 $100 American Platinum Eagle
The beginning of the American Platinum Eagle program began in 1996 when an amendment to section 5112 of Title 31, U.S. Code, stated that the “Secretary may mint and issue bullion and proof platinum coins in accordance with such specifications, designs, varieties, quantities, denominations, and inscriptions as the Secretary, in the Secretary’s discretion, may prescribe from time to time. : Provided, That the Secretary is authorized to use Government platinum reserves stockpiled at the United States Mint as working inventory and shall ensure that reserves utilized are replaced by the Mint.”
Issued from 1997 to 2008, the obverse of the bullion coin features Liberty (with the Statue of Liberty as a framework) and the reverse shows an eagle soaring above the United States as it glides with its outstretched wings. Beneath it are the sun’s rays. These designs remained constant for the duration of the bullion program while Proof and Uncirculated Platinum Eagles changed designs annually.
The Platinum Eagle bullion coins were available in fractional sizes including 1oz, 1/2oz, 1/4oz, and 1/10oz, and their face values were twice as much as the Gold Eagle fractional bullion coins. This means that the 1oz Platinum Eagle bullion coin had a $100 face value, which at the time, was the highest denomination every placed on a United States coin. Another factor to consider, according to Garrett and Shechter, is that the bullion coins were only available to the U.S. Mint’s authorized bullion dealers and could not be sold directly to the public.
Sales were immaculate in the first couple of years of the program as more than 50,000 1oz coins were sold in its first and third years of release. Over 133,000 coins were sold in its second year, which surprised many. However, after the third year, the bullion sales steadily decreased with the 2006 $100 Platinum Eagle selling just 6,000 1oz coins.
Reasons for the sales decrease were likened to platinum itself increasing in price, which would have made the coins even more expensive than they already were. In January of 2006, it finally broke the $1,000 mark and remained consistent around that price since (excluding the pricing of today). Another reason was that in 2006, the Mint offered collector versions of the Platinum Eagle that were available directly to the public. Collector demand shifted to those versions instead of the bullion coins.