1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round

MintAmerican Medallion Corporation AMC (Houston TX)

IssuerRobert E. Westfall Inc

DistributorRobert E. Westfall Inc

A largemouth bass thrashes at the surface, tail raised at left, with spray and bubbles beneath its belly and a lure at its mouth. The line runs up and to the left past a single cloud, with conifers on a shoreline at right. The legend arches across the top: "LARGEMOUTH BASS."

The Great Seal of the United States: an eagle with spread wings, shield, olive branch and arrows, E PLURIBUS UNUM banners, and an open arc of stars around "IN GOD WE TRUST." The legend reads "GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES," with "1 TROY OZ.999 FINE SILVER" along the base. No mint mark appears.

1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round Overview

The 1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round is a one troy ounce .999 fine silver round attributed to American Medallion Corporation (AMC) of Houston, Texas. It is the fish round that turns up in the most variations: one obverse design is documented with three distinct reverses, and on one of them the obverse is mirrored. All three types recorded here are unmarked, and none carries an AMC legend, so every attribution on this page is by pattern and design family, not by a struck maker’s name.

The obverse is a fishing scene at its most dramatic moment. A largemouth bass thrashes at the surface, body curled, tail high on the left, with spray and bubbles streaming from beneath its belly. A lure hangs from its open mouth and the line runs up and away to the upper left, across a sky with a single cumulus cloud. A shoreline of conifers stands on the right, and the legend “LARGEMOUTH BASS” arches over the top. The fish is rendered with a pebbled, hammered texture for its scales, and the artist spent as much effort on the water as on the animal. As with the other AMC fish rounds, this is a sport-fishing picture: the hooked fish and the taut line are the subject, not a field-guide portrait.

The species is Micropterus salmoides, the largemouth bass, and Texas Parks and Wildlife describes it as originally found across most of the United States east of the Rockies, including many Texas rivers and lakes, with smaller populations in southeastern Canada and northeastern Mexico. It has since been introduced around the world. It is a green fish with dark blotches forming a horizontal stripe down each side and a lighter belly, a nearly divided dorsal fin, and an upper jaw that extends past the rear of the eye. It favors clear, quiet water with cover such as logs, ledges, vegetation and man-made structure, and spawns in spring when the water reaches about 60 degrees Fahrenheit, which in Texas can mean anywhere from February to May depending on location.

Texas is the fish’s biggest stage. Two subspecies live in Texas waters: the native northern largemouth, M. s. salmoides, and the Florida largemouth, M. s. floridanus, which the state has introduced into many of its lakes because it grows larger. In 1986, the same year the company that became AMC was incorporated as Texas International Mint, Parks and Wildlife began the ShareLunker program, which encourages anglers to donate largemouth bass of about 13 pounds or more so the fish can be used to enhance trophy bass fishing in the state. The program’s data were later used to evaluate how well Florida largemouth stocking had worked. Whether or not the mint designer knew any of this, a Houston-struck silver round of a hooked largemouth landed in the middle of the decade when Texas turned the species into a trophy industry.

The reverse of the principal type is AMC’s Great Seal with the motto: an eagle with spread wings, a shield on its breast, an olive branch in one talon and a bundle of arrows in the other, with E PLURIBUS UNUM banners flying from its head, and an open arc of stars around the spelled-out “IN GOD WE TRUST.” The arched legend reads “GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES,” and the base line reads “1 TROY OZ.999 FINE SILVER.” This is the same Motto design that appears on AMC’s vehicle rounds, which carry “MADE IN U.S.A BY AMC.” The Bass example shows no such line. The Harley-Davidson round is the closest documented relative, and the legend layout of the two should be compared before the match is treated as exact.

1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round Attribution

No struck date appears on any type. Production is attributed to 1987 under this site’s convention for AMC rounds, tied to the company’s adoption of the American Medallion Corporation name on May 18, 1987. This is an attribution pending contemporary documentation, not a struck date, and it is the weakest part of this entry: unmarked AMC-style output is known from later in the period, so a later strike cannot be excluded for any type.

No mint mark or maker’s legend appears on any of the three recorded examples. The same obverse design appears on all three types, which ties them to one another. The link to AMC itself rests on the Motto reverse, a design shared with AMC’s marked vehicle rounds, and on the pattern of the fish rounds as a group; the Chain and Banner Eagle reverses have no AMC link of their own. No marked example of any Bass type has been seen. The manufacturer is therefore attributed to AMC, not confirmed.

No issuer or distributor documentation has been located. Issuer and Distributor are attributed to Robert E. Westfall Inc., AMC’s documented issuer and distributor during this period, under this site’s standing attribution for AMC rounds unless contrary evidence turns up. That attribution rests on the documented pattern, not direct evidence for these pieces.

1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round Alternate Reverse

The round is documented in three types, one per reverse, each described below with its own photo gallery. Photographs are named by reverse type and side, for example “1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round Motto Reverse Obverse.”

Motto Reverse (principal)

The open arc of stars around “IN GOD WE TRUST,” E PLURIBUS UNUM banners, shield, olive branch and arrows. “GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES” arched; “1 TROY OZ.999 FINE SILVER” at the base. No maker’s mark seen. This type supplies the main entry photographs.

Chain Reverse

A ring of interlocking chain links encloses four lines reading “ONE / TROY OZ / SILVER / .999,” and the legend “MADE IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” runs around the outside. The obverse is the same bass design, mirrored: the fish faces left, the line runs up and to the right, and the conifers stand on the left. No maker’s mark seen.

Banner Eagle Reverse

An eagle with wings spread and a scroll above its head, a shield on its breast, an olive branch in one talon and arrows in the other. The legends read “I MADE IN U.S.A” across the top, “1 TROY OUNCE” on the left and “FINE SILVER” on the right, separated by dots, within a denticled rim. A small group of marks just above the bottom legend is not resolved in the available photograph. No AMC legend seen. “Banner Eagle” is a working design name.

1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round Notes

• No mint mark or maker’s legend appears on any recorded example.
• One obverse design is documented with three reverses: Motto, Chain and Banner Eagle. The Chain-reverse examples carry the obverse mirrored (fish facing left).
• Whether the obverse dies are the same across the types has not been established.
• The Motto reverse is the same design used on AMC’s marked vehicle rounds.
• “Banner Eagle” is a working design name, not a name from any source.
• “Fish rounds” is a research grouping, not a series AMC is known to have marketed.
• Mintage is not documented for any type.

1987 Largemouth Bass AMC Silver Round References

• Largemouth Bass (Micropterus salmoides) — Texas Parks and Wildlife
• ShareLunker Program — Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
• Documented examples examined (this entry)
• Texas Stacker Archives

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