As you can see virtually all older dates of silver eagles have appreciated nicely.  Notice that the 1996 is by far the highest priced of the regular issue silver eagles. This is because the 1996 is the LOWEST MINTAGE. It is important to you to buy your silver eagles during the current year (buy your 2012 dates in 2012) as only during a mintages current year are the coins readily available and that is often when the price is the lowest. While there is no way to accurately predict when a certain mintage will be low until the following year, there are indications that 2012 may be an exceptionally low mintage year. Rising silver prices in late 2010  have severely cramped Silver Eagle sales. If this trend continues, not only will 2012 silver eagles continue to rise in intrinsic bullion value, there is also a good chance that the total mintage of 2012 eagles will be quite low. The message is clear: