US Silver Peace Dollars (1921-1935, 1964)
My Coin Blog
If you are interested, I just started a blog where I will be sharing information and some of my personal collection. You can stop by at:
www.ClarkCoins.com
A short introduction
I am a hobby coin collector, wouldn't quite consider myself a numismatist yet but certainly working towards that title. My personal coin collection focuses mainly on US coins, more pennies and silver coins than others. I do have a few world coins, and also a couple different foreign paper currency notes as well.
In this hub, I plan to share with you some information and history behind the US Silver Peace Dollar. So without further ado, I hope you enjoy!
1921 Peace Dollar From My Collection
The US Silver Peace Dollar (1921-1935, and 1964)
The Peace Dollar was first struck in December of 1921. Just over 1 million were struck, and released to the public on January 3, 1922. The mint initially struck them in high relief, but quickly realized that it was not practical for public trade use. All of the coins struck in 1921 were released in high relief, and the first 35,000 or so of the 1922 issue was struck this way as well. Because of its higher cost per unit production rate, nearly all of the 1922 Peace Dollars were kept by the mint and melted down. Because of this, very few 1922 high relief peace dollars are in existence today, and the ones that are out there are in high-end collections.
The Peace Dollar design was made by a famous medalist, by the name of Anthony de Francisci. The coin is 38.1mm in diameter, and weighs just under an ounce at 26.73 grams. It's composed of 90% pure silver and 10% copper. This works out to an actual silver weight of .77344 oz. Over it's relatively short-lived span from 1921-1935, it was minted at the three main modern mint locations of Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco.
Great Coin Collecting References
The 1964 Peace Dollar
A lesser known fact of the Peace Dollar, is that it was actually supposed to come back into commission in 1964. There was going to be a run of the latter Peace Dollar over the following years of 45 million more coins. 316,076 were struck in Denver in early 1965, dated 1964. The plans for this production were eventually scrapped and every 1964 Peace Dollar was melted down at the mint without ever leaving.
Contrary to some rumors out there, there are no 1964 Peace Dollars in existence. There are however, many fakes claiming to be ultra-rare 'leaked' coins from abandoned production run. So if you are ever in the market for collectible coins, DO NOT BUY any 1964 peace dollars, they are faked!
Key Dates For The Peace Dollar
Key dates of the Peace Dollar that many collector's are after, are:
1921 Peace Dollar - because it was the first year that it was issued, it was struck in high relief, and because of its relatively low mintage volume
1928 Peace Dollar - because it had the lowest mintage numbers of the entire series
1934D Double-Die Obverse Peace Dollar - because it is a harder to find variety of just over 1.5 million produced by the mint that year
For a full list of mintage numbers for the entire series, please see the chart below.
Peace Dollar Mintage Numbers
Year/Mint
| Mintage
| Year/Mint
| Mintage
|
|---|---|---|---|
1921 High Relief
| 1,006,473
| 1926D
| 2,348,700
|
1922 High Relief
| 35,401
| 1926S
| 6,980,000
|
1922
| 51,737,000
| 1927
| 848,000
|
1922D
| 15,063,000
| 1927D
| 1,268,900
|
1922S
| 17,475,000
| 1927S
| 866,000
|
1923
| 30,800,000
| 1928
| 360,649
|
1923D
| 6,811,000
| 1928S
| 1,632,000
|
1923S
| 19,020,000
| 1934
| 954,057
|
1924
| 11,811,000
| 1934D
| 1,569,500
|
1924S
| 1,728,000
| 1934S
| 1,011,000
|
1925
| 10,198,000
| 1935
| 1,576,000
|
1925S
| 1,610,000
| 1935S
| 1,964,000
|
1926
| 1,939,000
|
The production was halted for 1929 and picked back up in 1934, that is why the gap in years.
