2 oz Landmark Silver Round

A Discontinued Ultra-High-Relief Series With a Notorious History

The 2 oz Elemetal Mint Landmark silver round is part of the American Landmarks series, a collection of ultra-high-relief .999 fine silver rounds featuring iconic US sites. Struck under immense pressure to achieve a sculptural, three-dimensional appearance, these rounds are noticeably thicker (7.27 mm) for their diameter (39.18 mm) compared to standard bullion. The series debuted in July 2015 with a Grand Canyon design and was planned to include 20 American landmarks, but only four were ever produced before Elemetal's corporate collapse.

Elemetal Mint (formerly part of the NTR Metals / Ohio Precious Metals conglomerate) was a Dallas-based precious metals company. In 2018, the parent company pleaded guilty to Bank Secrecy Act violations connected to a $3.6 billion illegal gold smuggling operation from South America conducted between 2012 and 2015. Three NTR Metals employees were convicted of helping South American drug cartels launder money through illegal gold imports. Elemetal was fined $15 million, barred from international precious metals purchases for five years, and lost both LBMA and COMEX accreditation. No new products have been released since.

The four completed designs are: Grand Canyon (Horseshoe Bend, mintage 18,152), Liberty Island (Statue of Liberty, mintage 24,490), Pearl Harbor (USS Arizona Memorial), and Mount Rushmore (mintage 24,490). All share a common reverse depicting a detailed geographic map of North America rendered in ultra-high relief. Despite the company's criminal history, the rounds themselves contain genuine .999 fine silver, and their discontinued status has created a secondary market dynamic where some collectors seek them as limited-production curiosities.

American Landmarks Series Specifications

Designs Released

The UHR striking technique produces dramatically raised design elements with exceptional detail. The 7.27 mm thickness for a 39.18 mm diameter gives these rounds an unusually chunky, medal-like feel. Packaging was standard private mint format: plastic flips individually or tubes of 10. All four designs share the same common reverse: a three-dimensional geographic map of North America showing rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges, with "American Landmarks" engraved above and "2 oz .999 Fine Silver" below.

Tax Treatment for Discontinued Private Mint Rounds

The Elemetal Landmark rounds carry no legal tender status. The defunct status of the manufacturing company does not alter their tax classification; they remain private mint bullion rounds containing .999 fine silver.

• United States: No federal sales tax. State exemptions apply in approximately 35 states. Capital gains at the 28% collectibles rate. IRA eligible through approved custodians (meets purity requirement). State sales tax varies; some states that exempt bullion may treat secondary-market purchases differently than dealer purchases.
• United Kingdom: 20% VAT applies on purchase from a VAT-registered dealer. No CGT exemption (not UK legal tender). Very limited secondary market availability in the UK.
• Canada: GST/HST exempt for precious metals at 99.9%+ purity.
• Australia: GST-free at 99.9%+ purity for investment-grade precious metals.
• European Union: Standard VAT at local rates. No investment exemption for silver rounds.
• Singapore: GST-exempt under the IPM scheme at 99.9%+ purity.
• Hong Kong: No sales tax, no import duty.

The secondary market nature of these rounds means most purchases occur through private sale or dealer inventory rather than direct-from-mint channels. The silver content is unaffected by the manufacturer's history; a buyer receives 2 troy ounces of .999 silver regardless of corporate provenance.

Elemetal Landmarks vs Other Ultra-High-Relief Rounds

The closest contemporary comparison is the 2 oz Germania Beasts UHR rounds from Germania Mint. Both use the ultra-high-relief technique at the 2 oz weight, producing sculptural depth that standard rounds cannot achieve. The Germania Beasts are actively produced with new designs on a biennial schedule, while the Elemetal Landmarks are frozen at four designs with no possibility of continuation. The Germania Beasts also use .9999 purity versus Elemetal's .999.

Against other discontinued private mint products, the Elemetal Landmarks carry the additional factor of their manufacturer's criminal notoriety. Some collectors are specifically attracted by this provenance as a curiosity; others avoid Elemetal-branded products entirely on principle. Neither position affects the metal content, which is verifiable through standard weight, dimension, and specific gravity testing.

On the US Mint side, the America the Beautiful series featured US landmarks on government-issued 5 oz .999 silver coins with much higher mintages and official backing. These occupy a different weight class and price point entirely, but serve a similar thematic interest for collectors of American landmark imagery.

The Grand Canyon round, as the first in the series with the lowest mintage (18,152), typically commands the highest secondary market premium among the four designs. The low mintages across all four releases, combined with the impossibility of additional supply, create the conditions for secondary market premiums above generic melt value. Whether those premiums persist depends on sustained collector interest in what is ultimately a truncated series from a disgraced manufacturer.