2010-S Mount Hood, Silver Proof

The 2010-S Mount Hood Silver Proof closes the inaugural ATB silver proof slate with Phebe Hemphill's second 2010 design, a view of the 11,249-foot stratovolcano's south face as seen from the Lost Lake overlook, with reflected mountain imagery in the lake's foreground waters. San Francisco struck the issue on 90% silver, 10% copper planchets at 6.25 grams, the .900 fine standard the U.S. Mint had used for silver proof quarters across the 1992-2018 stretch. The Mint reported 585,401 silver proof sets sold for 2010, the production anchor on every one of the year's five silver entries, and Mount Hood is the only national-forest subject in the 2010 group (the other four are national parks). Hemphill thus designed two of the five 2010 reverses, the Grand Canyon and Mount Hood compositions.

Authentication on the issue rests on the 6.25-gram weight against 5.67 grams for the parallel clad proof, the half-gram spread any precision scale resolves cleanly. The reeded edge reads solid silver across the perimeter without the reddish copper-core line a clad strike shows at an angle. PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC, the Numismatic Guaranty Company, label silver entries with Silver or the S/Ag abbreviation on the slab insert alongside the proof designation. Cameo (CAM) and Deep Cameo (DCAM) are the two contrast tiers assigned on top of the numeric grade, with DCAM the default outcome because the working dies are chemically frosted before each press run. The reflection detail in the lake foreground and the snow shading on the summit's south face are the strike diagnostic points for the issue.

The issue currently trades at modern silver-proof pricing, with PR69-DCAM examples a modest premium over the 0.1808 ounce silver-weight value and PR70-DCAM examples a tier above. Mount Hood's relative obscurity outside the Pacific Northwest gives the issue weaker single-design buyer demand than Yellowstone or Grand Canyon, and the issue functions chiefly as a year-set component through 2010 silver proof set break-ups. Registry-set competition on the 2010 silver run has compressed since the issue's release, and the price spread between PR69-DCAM and PR70-DCAM is modest by modern proof standards. For the broader story of the ATB Silver Proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.