2017-S Ozark, Silver Proof

Chris Costello's Ozark reverse for the 2017-S Silver Proof renders a canoeist gliding across the Current River in southern Missouri, with a cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus) coiled on a sun-warmed log in the right foreground. Ozark National Scenic Riverways was the first federally protected riverway system in the United States when Congress established it in 1964, preserving 134 miles of the Current and Jacks Fork rivers and the karst spring system feeding them. San Francisco struck 522,526 pieces for the 2017 Silver Proof Set, the figure matching the year's Silver Proof Set sales total and a modest uptick over 2016 driven by 225th-anniversary product demand. The composition is the 90% silver, 10% copper alloy at 6.25 grams with .1808 troy ounces of pure silver. The issue is the third of five 2017 silver releases and the 38th of the 56-design ATB program.

Authentication on the issue starts with weight. The 6.25-gram silver planchet against the 5.67-gram clad sister gives a calibrated scale a half-gram spread to resolve, the cleanest non-destructive separation. The reeded edge reads silver around the perimeter without the reddish copper-core line a clad strike shows. 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 modern S-mint silver proofs because the working dies receive chemical etching before each press run. Strike diagnostics sit at the canoeist's paddle stroke, the snake's coiled body, and the water-surface texture between log and bow; weak presses flatten the snake's scale pattern first and the paddle blade second.

The collector market positions the issue as a 2017 Silver Proof Set component priced against the silver-spot floor plus a slab fee. PR69-DCAM examples in PCGS or NGC holders move at a modest premium over the bullion value carried by the 0.1808 ounce content, and PR70-DCAM examples sit a tier higher with registry-set buyers driving the spread. The cottonmouth on the reverse makes Ozark one of only a handful of ATB designs featuring a venomous reptile (paired structurally with the 2014 Everglades anhinga as one of the program's wildlife-focused reverses), and the design draws Missouri state-coinage and natural-history collectors as a secondary buyer base. The 522,526 silver print run sits at roughly 49 percent of the 1.08-million 2017 clad-proof figure. For the broader story of the ATB Silver Proof program and the series' production arc, see the Washington ATB series history.