1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round

MintAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

IssuerAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

DistributorRobert E. Westfall Inc

Right-facing bust of Abraham Lincoln after Victor David Brenner's 1909 cent portrait. "IN GOD WE TRUST" arches across the top, "LIBERTY" sits at left, and the date "1987" appears at lower right in the cent date position. No V.D.B. initials or mint mark; single raised rim ring.

Wheat cent–style reverse with two inward-curving ears of wheat flanking a four-line bullion inscription: "ONE TROY / OUNCE SILVER / 999 FINE". "E · PLURIBUS · UNUM" arches across the top. The mint legend "AMC / MADE IN U·S·A" is struck at the bottom between the wheat stems.

1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round Overview

The 1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round is a one troy ounce .999 fine silver tribute to the Lincoln wheat cent, struck in Houston by American Medallion Corporation (AMC). It belongs to the group of coin-replica rounds AMC produced during 1987, the same year the company turned out silver versions of the Canadian Maple Leaf, the Chinese Panda, and the Australian Koala. Where those pieces imitated foreign bullion, this one reaches back to the most familiar design in American pocket change and scales it up to full ounce size.

The obverse follows Victor David Brenner’s 1909 Lincoln portrait closely. Lincoln faces right in a frock coat and bow tie, with “IN GOD WE TRUST” arching across the top, “LIBERTY” at the left field, and the date “1987” at the lower right where a cent would carry its own year. That substitution is the one deliberate departure from the source design on this face: the 1987 date is AMC’s production year, not a cent date, and it is what makes this round one of the relatively few AMC issues that carries a struck year at all. Brenner’s “V.D.B.” initials, which appear on the shoulder truncation of most Lincoln cents, are not present, and there is no mint mark beneath the date. A single raised rim ring frames the design.

The reverse reworks the wheat cent back rather than copying it. Two ears of wheat curve inward from the edge exactly as they do on the 1909–1958 cent, and “E · PLURIBUS · UNUM” arches across the top with interpunct dots between the words. The central inscription, however, replaces “ONE CENT / UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” with “ONE TROY / OUNCE SILVER / 999 FINE” in four lines of tall sans-serif capitals, converting a denomination into a bullion statement. At the bottom, between the wheat stems, AMC struck its name in the legend: “AMC” on one line and “MADE IN U·S·A” beneath it. That legend is the mint mark under this site’s standard (see Attribution). No “COPY” marking appears anywhere on the round, in contrast to the Morgan-style Copy reverse AMC used on other pieces.

The strike on the documented example is proof-like, with brilliant reflective fields and frosted devices on both faces. Dealers commonly describe this round as a proof or proof-like strike, and all examples encountered in research share that finish. The reverse die is unique to this issue and has not been observed paired with any other AMC obverse; it does not belong to the family of shared Great Seal reverses (Motto, Beaded, Petal) that AMC recycled across most of its 1987–1988 output.

1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round Attribution

This is one of the cleaner attributions in the AMC catalog. The round carries a struck date of 1987 on the obverse, so the year is a Tier 1 fact rather than an attributed convention. The reverse legend “AMC / MADE IN U·S·A” places manufacture with American Medallion Corporation on the strength of the coin itself, with no reliance on dealer descriptions. Under the Texas Stacker mint-mark standard, a maker’s name spelled out in the design legend counts as the mint mark, so the Mint Mark field reads AMC even though there is no separate monogram or device.

Issuer follows the mint: AMC struck and sold its own coin-replica rounds under its own name, and no third-party program, dealer imprint, or licensing credit appears on the piece. Distributor is attributed to Robert E. Westfall Inc., the sales entity through which Westfall moved AMC product during this period, based on the documented pattern across the company’s 1987 output rather than on direct evidence tied to this specific design. That attribution stands pending discovery of contemporary sales literature or packaging for the Lincoln round.

Designer credit is layered. The portrait and wheat composition are Brenner’s, adapted from the 1909 Lincoln cent, but the reduction, the replacement text, and the reverse legend are AMC’s work, and the engraver who cut AMC’s dies for this round is not documented. The Designer/Engraver field therefore credits Brenner as the source design with the AMC engraver listed as unknown.

Mintage is undocumented. No AMC catalog, price list, or production record for this round has been located. Secondary catalogs list it as hard to find, and it appears less often in the sold-listing record than AMC’s foreign-bullion replicas from the same year, but that is a market observation, not a production figure.

1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round Notes

• The 1987 date on the obverse is AMC’s production year in the cent date position; it is not a reference to any Lincoln cent issue.
• Brenner’s “V.D.B.” initials are absent from the obverse truncation, and no mint mark appears under the date.
• Reverse central text is a bullion statement (“ONE TROY / OUNCE SILVER / 999 FINE”), not a denomination; the wheat ears and “E · PLURIBUS · UNUM” arc are retained from the cent design.
• The reverse legend “AMC / MADE IN U·S·A” is the mint mark under site standard. No “COPY” marking is present.
• The reverse die is specific to this issue and is not one of AMC’s shared Great Seal reverses.
• Finish on the documented example is proof-like on both faces; no business-strike (matte) variant has been observed.
• Not to be confused with the modern Golden State Mint Lincoln Wheat Cent round, which carries a 1909-S date, “GOLDEN STATE MINT” in the reverse legend, and “V.D.B.” at the base.

1987 Lincoln Wheat Back AMC Silver Round References

• Documented example examined (this entry) — obverse and reverse photographed, measurements taken from the physical piece
• Silver ‘Round the World (agroundworld.com), “1987 1 Oz AMC Lincoln Wheat Cent Silver Round” — https://agroundworld.com/pshop/american-medallion-company-silver-rounds/1987-1-oz-amc-lincoln-wheat-cent-silver-round-1339.html
• Numista N#369512, “1 Ounce Silver (American Medallion Corp – Lincoln Wheat Cent)” — https://en.numista.com/369512
• eBay listing, “1987 Lincoln Wheat Cent 1 oz .999 Fine Silver Round AMC Proof Strike” — https://www.ebay.com/itm/277527945445
• Texas Stacker Archives

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