The 2021 Type-2 reverse, in five short sections.

Mid-2021, the United States Mint retired the long-running Heraldic Eagle reverse on the American Silver Eagle and replaced it with a Landing Eagle design. The collector shorthand stuck: the pre-2021 Heraldic reverse is the Type-1, the post-mid-2021 Landing Eagle is the Type-2. The obverse — Adolphus Weinman’s Walking Liberty, modified mid-year in the same transition to the newer steps-and-fold Liberty — is a separate axis and not what collectors mean when they say “Type-2.”

The Mint did the switch in flight during 2021, so the calendar year 2021 is the only year where both reverses are struck at Philadelphia and San Francisco. After 2021 only the Type-2 reverse was produced. That first-year overlap is exactly why the holder market tracks Type-2 as a designation — the year and the reverse design move together, and the supply is fixed.

A Type-2 reverse is identified by the eagle’s posture on the reverse face, not by anything printed on the holder label. The Landing Eagle design shows the bird mid-descent with wings raised; the Heraldic Eagle design shows the bird with shield, olive branch, and arrows in a static crest. There are no Heraldic elements (shield, crest, scroll with “E PLURIBUS UNUM”) on a Type-2 reverse.

The grading services — NGC and PCGS — record the reverse design in their cert lookups. The cert record opens at ngccoin.com/certlookup/<cert>/ and pcgs.com/cert/<cert>/<grade> — both services surface the reverse-design attribute once the cert number is opened, so attribution lives in the cert record, not the holder label.

In practice, every Type-2 we hold is dated 2021 or later. The 2021 dual-reverse calendar year is the scarce scenario collectors pay up for; post-2022 pieces are plentiful and ride the standardized silver premium.

Holder-market premium lives on top of the raw supply curve. The Type-2 transition happened in July 2021, so the 2021 Type-2 run is a short strike window: roughly half a calendar year, from the switchover through year-end. Combined with the 2021-mint scarcity story collectors already pay up for (the bullseye West Point 2021, the 2021 emergency issues, the America 250 cross-year), the 2021 Type-2 reverse reads as the first-year run for a design that’s still in production.

Post-2021 Type-2 production is mechanically plentiful — the Mint moved to a single reverse-design production line and strike volumes resumed at scale. That supply floor is what keeps the broad Silver MS70 premium standardized at +$18/oz (see FAQ · why we don’t use a flat markup). 2021 Type-2 MS70s trade above the standardized premium; post-2022 Type-2 MS70s ride it.

If your cert matches a piece already on our tray, the offer binds to that inventory row’s premium — the same binding we publish on FAQ · buyback terms. Bring in a 2021 Type-2 holder and you’ll see the premium that specific row carries before you accept.

In an online cert review, three things matter in order: (a) the cert match against the live population report, (b) the eye appeal under magnification, and (c) the holder-era label freshness. The cert is non-negotiable — it’s the binding ID both grading services deep-link from their cert-lookup URLs. Eye appeal under magnification catches the contact marks, milk spots, or rim issues that a flat scan misses. Label freshness matters because the Type-2 first-year run has crossing label generations — early holders, repunch holders, and special-run labels (NGC America 250 cross-overs, signed-label runs from either service) that collectors track alongside the reverse design.

NGC or PCGS · 2021 Type-2 reverse

The Type-2 reverse is a designation, so it rides the same per-coin formula we publish on the home pricing card and the same one the buyback calculator runs: price = spot + premium/oz. The premium is per-metal and per-grade and shifts upward for the scarce 2021 first-year Type-2 MS70s the same way it shifts upward for West Point burnished labels.

Worked example, 1 oz Silver · 2021 Type-2 MS70: a 2021 first-year Type-2 MS70 trades above the standardized +$18/oz silver premium because the holder market pays up for the first-year run. Post-2022 Type-2 MS70s ride the standardized premium; 2021 Type-2 MS70s command the scarcity-level premium for that specific cert.

If the cert you bring matches a piece on our tray, the offer binds to that row’s premium; otherwise the per-grade default is published on the offer screen so you can see exactly which premium applied before you accept. Same lead-time as the buyback flow: same-day against the morning spot.