2016-S Fort Moultrie, Silver Proof

San Francisco closed the 2016 silver-proof slate with Richard Masters's Fort Moultrie design at 481,140 pieces, the figure matching the U.S. Mint's Silver Proof Set sales total for 2016. The reverse depicts Sergeant William Jasper at Fort Sullivan during the June 28, 1776 British naval attack on Charleston Harbor, lofting the recovered blue-and-crescent palmetto flag back to the parapet after British cannon fire severed its staff. Jasper was killed three years later at the September 1779 Siege of Savannah. The composition is the 90% silver, 10% copper alloy the Mint had used for silver proof quarters since 1992, weighing 6.25 grams and carrying .1808 troy ounces of pure silver on a 24.26-millimeter planchet with reeded edge. The issue is the fifth and final 2016 silver release and the 35th of the 56-design ATB program.

Authentication on the issue rests on the weight gap between the silver and clad planchets. The 6.25-gram silver figure against 5.67 grams for the clad sister is the cleanest non-destructive separation, resolvable on a calibrated scale to the eighth of a gram. The reeded edge reads silver around the entire 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 the slab insert with Silver or the S/Ag abbreviation alongside the proof designation, where Cameo (CAM) is moderate frosted-device contrast and Deep Cameo (DCAM) the higher tier that is the standard outcome on the issue. The single-figure historical composition makes strike quality especially diagnostic: graders watch Jasper's facial profile, the folds in the flag, and the uniform detail when separating PR69 from PR70. Worn dies flatten the drapery folds and facial features first.

The issue trades at the upper end of the 2016 silver-proof price band because the Revolutionary War subject draws cross-disciplinary interest from Charleston-area, Revolutionary War, and South Carolina state collectors that the year's natural-feature reverses do not generate. PR69-DCAM examples in PCGS or NGC holders move at a modest premium over the silver-spot floor carried by the 0.1808 ounce content, and PR70-DCAM examples sit a tier higher with registry-set buyers driving the spread. The single-figure flag-rescue composition is among the most distinctive in the entire ATB silver-proof market and pairs structurally with the 2015 Saratoga silver issue as one of only two Revolutionary War-anchored designs in the series. For the broader story of the ATB Silver Proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.