The World’s Most Precious Silver Peace Dollars

Silver Peace Dollars: Understanding the key dates, rarities, and varieties in the Silver Peace dollarS enables collectors to appreciate that values in coins significantly depend on small differences. When the speech comes to the descriptions and the photos of the Peace silver dollars, it will be easier to identify the actual valuable pieces from this series, including the 1922 one.

There are some defined and comprehensive attributes as to why some coins are very valuable as opposed to others. As a rule, the less circulation of a particular coin, the more it is estimated to have in monetary terms. Of course, rarity does a lot to determine how much your Silver Peace Dollars will be worth.

After the Morgan silver dollar, the silver Peace dollars is the second most sought-after United States silver dollar. It is also possible to acquire all the known varieties of Peace dollars that are in circulated condition for a reasonable price. But collecting uncirculated coins will surely take time and amount to patience, especially for an individual who is keen on acquiring the right coins for the set.

The more advanced collector will aim at securing all of the following examples of silver Peace dollars in their finest condition possible; this includes the much-valued 1922 Silver Peace Dollars.

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1921 (Philadelphia Mint)

As required by the Pittman Act of 1918, millions of silver Peace dollars were struck in 1921 with the old Morgan Dollar design due to authorization from the U. S. Treasury Department. Originally, the work of developing the new silver Peace dollar was to be done by artists at the United States Mint; however, they required some more time to complete the project. High relievo was produced through the design of Anthony de Francisci, who designed the Peace silver dollar.

The new design resulted in portions of the design that were positioned at the highest position of the coin being lightly struck and Europeans without much detail. Combining the numbers of the Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco mints alone, a total of more than 68 million Morgan sliver dollars were minted in 1921 and slightly more than 1 million Peace sliver dollars were made. De Francisci decided to lower the relief in 1922 so that the issues with the strike of the coins could be well addressed. Consequently, the 1921 Peace silver dollar is a one-year-old coin.

Also, close to 35,000 high relief 1922 peace dollars were struck. But, owing to the high relief that characterized these coins, their production stopped soon after. Some of these coins were posted to Mint headquarters in Washington, DC. The rest of them were said to have been destroyed. Nonetheless, a few of them got out into the public domain of circulation. Owing to the high-relief technique used in minting them, keep an eye on these extremely rare peace dollars.

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1922 Die Break in Reverse Field

A great deal of pressure is used in minting coins. The bigger a given coin is, the more force that has to be applied in order to mint the particular currency. Philadelphia mint workers on June 24, 1922, did not note a worn die. A crack was visible in the die on the reverse side below the eagle and above the word DOLLAR, which caused a blob of metal to be formed. Even without the use of a magnification instrument, this variety is quite distinguishable. This has made it very popular with coin collectors who specialize in die varieties. This die variety is one of the Top 50 VAM varieties for Peace silver dollars and is cataloged as FS-S1-1922-001f.

1922 Die Break at Ear

Again, the workers at the Philadelphia Mint missed the fact that there was a problem with a coin die. This third state was characterized by the fact that the obverse die was worn out and developing crackles. The crack began to emerge on the crown of Lady Liberty and only at the back of her ear. You will be able to spot this die variation by a spurt of metal that goes around her ear, across the lobe, and down to her neck. Some coin collectors more specifically know this die variety by the name “Ear Ring” variety. This variety is known by numismatic researchers as VAM 2a with the designation FS-S1-1922-002a and is rated by the authors of the VAM project as one of the prime 50 VAMs for the Silver Peace Dollar series.

1928 (Philadelphia Mint)

The Philadelphia-minted Peace silver dollar of 1928 is the rarest of all the series, with a mintage of only 360,649. As the Great Depression began to show its effects on the economy of the United States of America, the use of coins by the American people began declining. For this reason, the Peace silver dollars were not struck from 1929 through 1933.

Be careful with clad coins where someone has replaced an insane 1928-S with a low-value coin minted in San Francisco. If you wish to acquire one of these coins, you should only do so via a certified coin dealer or a coin that has received certification from a third-party grading company.

1934-D Doubled Die Obverse

No Peace silver dollars were struck, but a vigorous market demand for them built up and compelled the Mint to resume striking the coins. Known cases of such circulated double-die obverse coins were produced by the Denver Mint in 1934. The doubling should be looked for on the upper part of the letter ‘D’ in the word God and on the lower part of the letter ‘W’ in the word WE. Also, ensure that the head has a double image of the sun’s rays on the right section and the profile of Lady Liberty. Though the number of such coins minted from this die has not been determined, those coin collectors who focus on the collection of the Peace silver dollars actively look for this die variety.

1934-S (San Francisco Mint)

Circulated Morgenthaler is easy to find, but an uncirculated one will be quite a rarity to find. The 1934-S Peace dollar was struck to a mintage of just slightly over one million pieces, which makes it the fourth lowest in the series.

Since collectors set aside a small proportion of mint state coins over time, this created a conditional rarity. Avoid counterfeits where an ‘S’ is removed from another Peace dollar and welded to a 1934 Philadelphia mint Peace dollar. Uncirculated coins should be authenticated by a third-party grading service before buying the specimen.

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