What kind of coin is this?

Question

What kind of coin is this?

The front side says American Eagle (though this is different from any American Eagle silver dollars I've seen)

The tails side says ONE TROY OUNCE at the top, and under it 31.1 grams

The bottom says 999 Fine Silver, and under that SILVER TRADE UNIT

In small lettering on the left and right side each it says A S & M Co

It's also not printed straight up and down. As in, if you flip it completely vertical it the other side is ****** at a 30 degree angle.

The thing that really sets it apart though is the bell on the back, which appears smaller than other coins I've seen with a bell.

Here are pics:

http://www.ewexperts.com/images/coin1.jpg

http://www.ewexperts.com/images/coin2.jpg

Answer 1

It is called a silver round and was minted by a private mint not the U.S. Mint. your photo's are out of focus so i can not see the writing. it has what is called a rotated reverse unless it was made that way on purpose. Over the years there are hundreds or maybe thousands of types of silver rounds and no book was ever published on them. The records kept by private mints were never saved and a lot of mints started up back in the 1960's through the 1990's and never made it. No one knows how rare some of the silver rounds are. They are usually a one troy ounce of silver .999 pure. The term silver trade unit kept a lot of the private minters out of jail, for the secret service frowns on what are really medals, that look like or could be mistaken for U.S. mint coins. I did a check on the company name but came up blank as a mint. You may never know much about it unless more research is done and a book shows up. I do wish the photo's were sharper, there may have been a clue there also look around the edge for any wording. This is the best i can do at this time.