Jaime Hernandez: The 1996 silver eagle is the lowest mintage of all regular issue (non-proof) American Silver eagles. Mintages for the 1994 to 1998 eagles were relaitvely low compared to most other issues in the series. Starting in 1999, demand again increased and mintages rose to the 8 to 10 million coin a year level. The 1996 silver eagle would remain the key date with a mintage of 3,603,386 coins struck.