A bull terrier with an X over its eye lies sprawled on a beach at sunset beside tipped sunglasses and broken glass, with palm trees, scattered stars and a tipped "SPLAT BEER" truck behind. The legend arches over the top: "TURN OUT THE LIGHT / THE PARTY'S OVER."
The Great Seal of the United States: a spread-winged eagle with an olive branch and bundle of arrows, E PLURIBUS UNUM banners, and "IN GOD WE TRUST" inside thirteen stars. The legend reads "GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES," with "1 TROY OZ.999 FINE SILVER MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC" struck along the base.
Manufacturer confirmed to American Medallion Corporation via the spelled-out "MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC" reverse legend. Year attributed to 1987 per site convention for undated AMC rounds (post-TIM brand adoption, May 18, 1987) and the Spuds MacKenzie campaign's 1987 debut; a 1988–1989 strike cannot be excluded. Not a struck date. Subject identified by design and tagline only; no Anheuser-Busch mark appears, so it is treated as an unlicensed parody. Jon Moore is credited as creator of the Spuds MacKenzie character only; the engraver of this round is unknown and no signature has been located. Issuer and Distributor attributed to Robert E. Westfall Inc. from its documented pattern with AMC's late-1980s rounds, not direct evidence for this round.
The 1987 Spuds MacKenzie "The Party's Over" / "Turn Out The Lights" 1 oz .999 silver round (Bud Light promotional) has steady, long-running sales activity since 2011, including multiple AMC-mint-marked examples treated as the same design.
| Date | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| May 21, 2026 | 125.00 | Most RecentHighest Ever |
| Dec 5, 2025 | 99.99 | |
| Aug 18, 2025 | 48.00 | |
| May 6, 2025 | 65.00 | |
| May 6, 2025 | 48.88 | UnverifiedAMC-mint variant |
| May 23, 2024 | 42.00 | |
| Mar 23, 2024 | 42.00 | UnverifiedAMC-mint variant, noted hairlines |
| Jun 7, 2023 | 71.00 | |
| Apr 4, 2023 | 48.00 | |
| Apr 26, 2022 | 57.00 | UnverifiedAMC-mint variant |
| Nov 1, 2019 | 32.50 | |
| Aug 7, 2019 | 36.50 | |
| Apr 14, 2019 | 27.99 | UnverifiedAMC-mint variant |
| Apr 20, 2018 | 25.00 | UnverifiedListed as "Pitbull" variant of same dog-breed design |
| Aug 27, 2014 | 49.95 | UnverifiedSale included bundled Spuds Mackenzie credit-card novelty |
| Jun 13, 2014 | 51.01 | |
| Mar 5, 2014 | 27.95 | |
| Nov 7, 2013 | 26.01 | UnverifiedAMC-mint variant |
| Apr 30, 2011 | 49.00 | |
| Apr 30, 2011 | 49.00 | |
| Apr 30, 2011 | 50.00 |
Scroll for full 21-sale history ↓
1987 Spuds MacKenzie AMC Silver Round Overview
The 1987 Spuds MacKenzie AMC Silver Round is a one troy ounce .999 fine silver novelty round from American Medallion Corporation (AMC) of Houston, Texas, built around the most recognizable beer mascot of the late 1980s. Its obverse never names him. There is no “Spuds,” no “MacKenzie,” no “Bud Light.” Instead, a bull terrier with an X over its eye lies wrecked on a beach at sunset, sunglasses tipped beside him, broken glass in the sand and a tipped-over “SPLAT BEER” truck behind him, under the arched legend “TURN OUT THE LIGHT / THE PARTY’S OVER.” Anyone alive in 1987 knew exactly who the dog was meant to be.
The Original 1987 Spuds MacKenzie Superbowl Commercial
Spuds MacKenzie, billed as “The Original Party Animal,” made his national debut in a Bud Light spot during Super Bowl XXI in January 1987. The idea began as a rough sketch for a Bud Light poster at the Chicago agency Needham, Harper & Steers (later DDB Needham), where art director Jon Moore, then 23, created the character; the coin’s artwork borrows his idea, though the engraver of the round itself is unknown. Anheuser-Busch then needed a real dog to play the part and found one at a Chicago dog show: a female bull terrier named Honey Tree Evil Eye, called “Evie” by her owners, Jackie and Stanley Oles of suburban Chicago. The splotch over her left eye gave the character his look. The irony everyone enjoyed later was that “Spuds” was a girl. The Chicago Tribune broke it in September 1987 under the headline “Spuds Is a Dud as a Party Guy – He’s a Girl.”
The campaign was built to sell Bud Light to men aged 21 to 34 by surrounding a deadpan dog with fun. The early posters put him in a “Delta Omicron Gamma” fraternity sweatshirt, and the TV spots flanked him with the “Spudettes,” a crew of young women, with Robin Leach supplying the voice-over. By Mental Floss’s account, Anheuser-Busch put about $50 million behind it, and the New York Times credited Spuds with lifting Bud Light sales roughly 20 percent between 1987 and 1988. More than 200 officially licensed Spuds products followed, from stuffed dolls to posters, and Spuds and the Spudettes reportedly outsold TV’s ALF in the poster market. Unlicensed knockoffs sold on street corners and at beach resorts, and Anheuser-Busch pursued trademark and copyright suits against what it considered infringements of the “Original Party Animal” and his look.
The backlash came just as fast. Within a year of his debut, Senator Strom Thurmond was waving a stuffed Spuds doll on the Senate floor, accusing Anheuser-Busch of marketing beer to children. Ohio stores pulled Bud Light cartons showing Spuds in a Santa suit, and schools across the country banned students from wearing Spuds gear. Anheuser-Busch retired him in 1989 and shifted the brand to a responsible-drinking message, including a Super Bowl XXIII spot of Spuds playing guitar, beer-free, under the tagline “Know When to Say When.” Evie died of kidney failure in 1993, at about ten years old. Spuds came back as a ghost, voiced by Carl Weathers, in a Bud Light spot during Super Bowl LI in 2017.
The round’s tagline has its own Texas pedigree. “The Party’s Over” was written by Willie Nelson in the mid-1950s, when he was working as a disc jockey in Vancouver, Washington, after moving there from Fort Worth in 1956; he recorded his own version in 1966, and it was released as a single in 1967. On ABC’s Monday Night Football in the 1970s, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Don Meredith famously sang the song’s opening line once a game was decided. The coin’s legend reads “LIGHT” in the singular rather than the “lights” of the broadcast catchphrase, but the sentiment is the same: it is the sign-off on a party that’s done, and it fits a mascot whose whole act was the party.
The reverse is AMC’s standard Great Seal of the United States, the Design 1 “motto” die: a spread-winged eagle with an olive branch and a bundle of arrows, E PLURIBUS UNUM banners, and “IN GOD WE TRUST” spelled out inside a ring of thirteen stars, under the arched legend “GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES” and above the struck line “1 TROY OZ.999 FINE SILVER MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC.” The same reverse appears on AMC’s 1987 Highland Light, 1987 Harley Davidson Motto Reverse and 1987 Oliver North Silver Star rounds, which shows how AMC paired its stock reverse with unrelated obverses across its novelty and celebrity line.
1987 Spuds MacKenzie AMC Silver Round Attribution
This round carries no struck date. No dated examples, catalogs, or original sales literature have been located. Production is attributed to 1987, tied to two documented events: Spuds MacKenzie’s national debut during Super Bowl XXI in January 1987, with the character’s popularity peaking in 1987 and 1988, and the May 18, 1987 renaming of Texas International Mint, Inc. as American Medallion Corporation, which this site treats as the start of the AMC brand. A strike in 1988 or 1989 cannot be excluded, since the character stayed in the public eye until Anheuser-Busch retired him in 1989 and AMC’s Texas filing went inactive in November 1989. The year is attributed, not confirmed, pending discovery of contemporary documentation establishing an exact release date.
Manufacturer attribution to American Medallion Corporation is established by the spelled-out “MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC” line on the reverse, which meets this site’s standard of a struck mark on the coin itself. The subject is identified by design and tagline alone, since the obverse carries no name. No Anheuser-Busch mark, license wording or copyright line appears on the coin, and nothing located ties it to Anheuser-Busch, so the round is treated as an unlicensed parody, in the same way as AMC’s other tribute subjects. No issuer or distributor documentation (original packaging, a period catalog, or a COA) has been located for this round. Issuer and Distributor are both attributed to Robert E. Westfall Inc., the Ohio firm that handled AMC’s late-1980s rounds and is recorded as issuer and distributor on this site’s Harley Davidson entry. The attribution rests on that documented pattern, not on direct evidence for this piece, so it is attributed, not confirmed, pending discovery of packaging, a catalog or a COA tying this round to Westfall.
1987 Spuds MacKenzie AMC Silver Round Notes
- The obverse names neither Spuds MacKenzie nor Bud Light; the “SPLAT BEER” truck is a parody device, not an Anheuser-Busch mark.
- The reverse is AMC’s Design 1 motto Great Seal die, shared with the Highland Light, Harley Davidson and Oliver North rounds, among others.
- “The Party’s Over” ties to Willie Nelson’s song and Don Meredith’s Monday Night Football sign-off; the coin’s legend uses the singular “LIGHT.”
- The real Spuds was a female bull terrier, Honey Tree Evil Eye (“Evie”), who died in 1993.
- Mintage quantity has not been documented and is recorded as Unknown.
1987 Spuds MacKenzie AMC Silver Round References
- Spuds MacKenzie — Wikipedia
- The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Spuds MacKenzie, the Original Party Animal — Mental Floss
- Anheuser-Busch Companies: Spuds Mackenzie Campaign 1986–1989 — WARC
- “The Party’s Over” (Willie Nelson song) — Wikipedia
- Documented example examined (this entry)
- Texas Stacker Archives
