The obverse features a single fully bloomed rose with stem, leaves, and detailed serrated edges. The flower is centrally positioned within an open field without additional inscriptions. The engraving emphasizes layered petals and naturalistic shading, with frosted relief against reflective background surfaces.
The reverse carries a circular legend reading “.999 FINE SILVER” and “ONE TROY OUNCE.” Centered within a recessed matte inner field is the date “1985 or 1986,” positioned above a silhouette of the State of Texas. The outer ring is polished with raised lettering, contrasting against the textured interior field.
Unmarked examples are attributed to World Wide Mint, Inc. based on matching die characteristics and production style observed on confirmed WWM-marked rounds. Attribution is supported by physical evidence but not explicitly marked.
The 1985 Yellow Rose of Texas round trades infrequently, with sales spread thin across more than a decade. Most sales have clustered in the $27-$49 range, with one outlier sale bringing a significant premium.
| Date | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 5, 2024 | 48.95 | Most Recent |
| Aug 31, 2022 | 149.64 | Highest Ever |
| Mar 13, 2019 | 32.50 | |
| Dec 19, 2013 | 33.88 | UnverifiedTitle reads "Reminiscent Of The Yellow Rose Of Texas" rather than naming it directly — photo matches the rose design, but title phrasing suggests it may be a tribute/different-mint piece; needs confirmation |
| Feb 11, 2011 | 27.34 | |
| Feb 10, 2011 | 28.51 |
Scroll for full 6-sale history ↓
1985-86 The Yellow Rose of Texas Overview
The 1985-86 Yellow Rose of Texas Silver Round, attributed to World Wide Mint (Bloomington, MN), is a 1 oz .999 fine silver round issued during the Texas Sesquicentennial period. The obverse depicts a single fully bloomed rose with stem and leaves, rendered in naturalistic detail with no inscription. The reverse carries a Texas-silhouette device within a “.999 FINE SILVER · ONE TROY OUNCE” legend, struck in two separate dated variants — “1985” and “1986.” This is a standalone World Wide Mint issue, distributed alongside but not part of the eight-design Texas 150th Anniversary Collection.
1985-86 The Yellow Rose of Texas Attribution
Mint is attributed to World Wide Mint on the basis of the shared Texas-outline reverse used across this mint’s confirmed and attributed Texas-era output; see the mint page for the underlying die-linkage reasoning. Distributor is John Grayson (San Benito / Harlingen, TX), consistent with his documented regional distribution of World Wide Mint’s Texas-era output.
1985-86 The Yellow Rose of Texas Historical Significance
The image on the obverse — an unadorned rose with no text or date beyond the reverse — leaves the coin’s subject to be inferred entirely from its title, and that title points to one of Texas’s murkier pieces of folklore rather than a documented event. The “Yellow Rose” story holds that a woman, often identified as Emily D. West, was present in Santa Anna’s camp and distracted him in the hours before the Battle of San Jacinto, indirectly aiding the Texian surprise attack. The earliest known written trace of this story appears in an 1842 travel journal by William Bollaert — recorded as hearsay six years after the battle, not as a contemporary account from 1836 itself, and naming no “Emily West” directly.
The song most people associate with the legend, “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” has its own separate and even murkier origins, emerging in published form in the 1850s with no documented connection to West or San Jacinto in its earliest versions. The now-familiar link between the song, the legend, and the specific woman’s name is largely a 20th-century accretion, layered onto fragments of 19th-century folklore well after the fact. The rose on this coin, in other words, stands in for a story that has grown more detailed with each retelling rather than one preserved by firsthand record — a instructive contrast to pieces like the Come and Take It round, where the underlying historical event is solid even if the flag’s exact appearance isn’t.
1985-86 The Yellow Rose of Texas Notes
- This design is not part of the Texas 150th Anniversary Collection eight-coin set, despite sharing a distributor and mint with that program
- Two struck date variants exist: “1985” and “1986” on the reverse
1985-86 The Yellow Rose of Texas References
- World Wide Mint (Bloomington, MN), The Texas Stacker
- John Grayson (San Benito / Harlingen, TX), The Texas Stacker
- Texas Stacker Archives
