1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round — Motto Reverse

MintAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

IssuerAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

DistributorAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

Right-facing profile of a full-dress Harley touring motorcycle with windshield, crash bar, top case, and hard saddlebags, its V-twin engine rendered in detail. The legend "HARLEY DAVIDSON" arches across the upper field. No date, trademark, or licensing mark appears.

AMC's Great Seal Motto reverse: heraldic eagle with shield, olive branch, and thirteen arrows, holding a ribbon reading "E PLURIBUS UNUM." Thirteen stars in open arcs surround "IN GOD WE TRUST." Legends read "GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES" and "1 TROY OZ .999 FINE SILVER MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC."

1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round Overview

The 1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round is one of a small group of vehicle-themed one-ounce rounds struck by American Medallion Corporation of Houston during its brief production run in the late 1980s. Alongside a pickup truck, a BMW, and a BSA motorcycle, AMC produced this profile of a fully dressed Harley touring bike, and the group has since been catalogued together by Numista under a “Transports” grouping. Of the four, the Harley is the one most often encountered, though none of them can be called common.

The obverse carries the single legend “HARLEY DAVIDSON” arched across the upper field, struck without the hyphen the Milwaukee company itself uses, and with no trademark symbol, copyright notice, or licensing credit anywhere in the design. Below it, filling the full width of the round, is a right-facing profile of a big-twin touring motorcycle in full dress: tall windshield, front crash bar, a top case mounted behind the two-up seat, hard saddlebags, a full front fender with a wire-spoke wheel, and a large V-twin engine with the pushrod tubes and rocker boxes clearly rendered. The configuration is consistent with a Shovelhead-era FLH Electra Glide of the 1970s or early 1980s, which would have been a familiar sight on Texas highways when the round was made. The engraving is competent and detailed rather than artistic, with the machine rendered in a flat technical-illustration style typical of AMC’s subject rounds.

The reverse is the AMC Great Seal design in its Motto form — the version this site names the Motto reverse to distinguish it from AMC’s other Great Seal dies. The heraldic eagle stands with wings displayed, a federal shield on its breast, an olive branch in its right talon and a bundle of thirteen arrows in its left, holding a ribbon inscribed “E PLURIBUS UNUM” in its beak. Above the eagle’s head the thirteen stars are arranged in open arcs around the words “IN GOD WE TRUST” in three lines. The outer legend reads “GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES” around the upper two-thirds of the rim, and the lower rim carries the weight, fineness, and maker statement “1 TROY OZ .999 FINE SILVER MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC.” That spelled-out maker statement is the mint mark for cataloguing purposes.

AMC’s subject rounds were sold as inexpensive silver with a picture on it, aimed at the general public rather than at numismatists, and a motorcycle round would have sold to riders and enthusiasts as readily as to silver buyers. The absence of any Harley-Davidson licensing on the piece is in keeping with the rest of AMC’s output, which freely borrowed recognizable subjects — comic-strip characters, sport fish, foreign bullion designs — without documented permission from the rights holders. Nothing about the round suggests it was ever an official Harley-Davidson product, and it should not be confused with the licensed Harley-Davidson silver medallions and rounds issued by other makers from the 1990s onward.

1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round Attribution

The round is undated. No dated examples, period catalogs, or original sales literature for the Harley Davidson round have been located. Following the site convention for undated AMC production, the round is attributed to 1987, the year Texas International Mint adopted the American Medallion Corporation name and the AMC legend that appears on this reverse first came into use. That attribution is held pending discovery of contemporary documentation establishing an exact release date, and it is a working date rather than a struck one.

Manufacture is confirmed by the struck legend “MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC,” which places the piece within AMC’s Houston production. Issue and distribution are attributed to Robert E. Westfall, Inc., the Ohio corporation Westfall reactivated in 1986 to market AMC’s output, on the basis of the documented pattern across AMC’s subject rounds rather than any evidence specific to this design. Designer and engraver are unknown; AMC did not sign its dies.

1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round Alternate Reverse

The same Harley Davidson obverse is also documented paired with AMC’s Beaded reverse, a Great Seal die in which the thirteen stars sit inside a closed wreath of beaded dots with no “IN GOD WE TRUST” motto. On the Harley, that Beaded reverse is unmarked — it carries no AMC maker statement at all. The Beaded design itself is confirmed as AMC’s own work through a marked example on the AMC International Silver Trade Unit round, so the unmarked pairing is treated as a later die state within the Westfall era rather than as the work of another mint. The full comparison of the two Harley reverses, including the die markers used to distinguish the Beaded die, is carried on the Beaded reverse entry.

1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round Notes

• Legend reads “HARLEY DAVIDSON” without a hyphen; the round carries no trademark, copyright, or licensing mark.
• One of four vehicle-subject AMC rounds sharing the Motto reverse (Harley Davidson, Pickup Truck, BMW, BSA).
• A second reverse pairing (Beaded reverse, unmarked) is documented — see Alternate Reverse above.
• Not to be confused with licensed Harley-Davidson silver rounds and medallions of the 1990s and later, which are unrelated to AMC.

1987 Harley Davidson AMC Silver Round References

• Documented example examined (this entry)
• Numista — 1 oz Silver, Harley Davidson (AMC), N# 414598
• Numista — 1 oz Silver, Pickup Truck (AMC), N# 414595; BMW (AMC), N# 414599; BSA (AMC), N# 414601
• Numista — 1 oz Silver, International Silver Trade Unit (AMC), N# 354584 (marked Beaded reverse)
• The Texas Stacker — American Medallion Corporation mint page
• The Texas Stacker — Robert E. Westfall, Inc. issuer/distributor page
• Texas Stacker Archives

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