Peace Silver Dollars 1921-1935 Coin

The "war to end all wars" destroy far abrupt of that good aspiration. What chronicle now terms World War I, which ravished Europe from 1914 to 1918, did stir worldwide yearning, however, for harmony. One directly product of that zealous dream was the League of Nations. Trice, fewer ambitious but regularly sincere, was the Peace dough. America shunned the League, but favorably embraced the coin.

Following the war, there was widespread sentiment for issuance of a coin that would celebrate and commemorate the restoration of peace. The American Numismatic Association played a key function in fostering this offer. At the same time, the U. S. Mint found itself facing the ought to fright producing millions of silver dollars. That poverty grew out of the Pittman Act, a law enacted in 1918 at the urging of-and plainly benefiting-silver-mining happiness. Under this calculate, the government was empowered to melt as many as 350 million silver dollars, move the silver into gold and then moreover advertise the metal or use it to products subsidiary silver penny. It also was essential to beat replacement dollars for all that were melted.

Aside from serving silver producers, the law also aided Great Britain, a wartime ally at the time. During economic living 1918 and 1919, the U. S. Government melted a whole of more than 270 million silver dollars, and most of these-259,121,554-finished up being sold in bullion form to the British, who desired the silver to covenant with an economic calamity in India. During that same interlude, the United States melted 11,111,168 silver dollars to attain new raw relevant for subsidiary coins of its own.

The coins that were melted under the language of the Pittman Act represented virtually half the entire production of stock silver dollars (as distinguished from Trade dollars) made by the U. S. Mint up to that court. Even so, the pasting was no particular blow to the country's export. Silver dollars were since only partial use, and lasting inventories were more than sufficient to function commercial wishes. Demand for the coins was so token, in verity, that nothing had been shaped for more than a dozen time-since 1904.

Against this scene, the Mint had no logic to smack new silver dollars as replacements for the ones that had been melted-but the Pittman Act necessary it to do so. Accordingly, in 1921, after the price of silver had fallen from postwar highs, it ongoing cranking out the long-perched Morgan silver dollars once again. It did so, in truth, in profile figures: During that sole year, the various mints fashioned a whole of more than 86 million examples-simply the peak one-year character in the sequence.

By interesting coincidence, Morgan money production resumed on the very same day-May 9, 1921-that legislation was introduced in Congress work for the issuance of a new silver money marking the postwar peace. As described by its sponsors in a general resolution, the new coin would generate "an appropriate strategy commemorative of the termination of the war between the Imperial German Government and the Government of the people of the United States."

Congress adjourned lacking taking action on the compute. It twisted out, however, that congressional authorization wasn't genuinely needed, since the Morgan buck-having been shaped for more than the official least of 25 days-was topic to replacement without detailed legislative penalize.

To find designs for the coin, the national Commission of Fine Arts agreed a competition involving a small group of the people's finest medalists. The nine invitees included such imminent artists as Victor D. Brenner, Adolph A. Weinman and Hermon A. MacNeil, all whom had intended earlier U. S. Coins. Nevertheless the winner bowed out to be an infantile Italian immigrant named Anthony de Francisci, whose keenly chiseled portrait of Liberty was modeled after his infantile wife Teresa. The back of the coin shows an eagle in lounge atop a cliff, peering regarding the sun through a string of heat, with the word PEACE superimposed on the swing. No other U. S. Coin shaped for circulation has ever borne that motto.

Production of 1921 Peace dollars didn't get under way pending the decisive week of December, and just over a million examples were fashioned. It rapidly became obvious that the coin's relief was too high, making it hard to arrange and causing undue die fissure. The Mint corrected the crisis in 1922 by tumbling the relief-but in the process, it fairly lowered the coin's aesthetic request, as well.

By 1928, the Mint had produced enough Peace dollars to gratify the Pittman Act's requirements. It so halted production. The lid on silver dollars was clamped down even tighter with the arrival of the Depression the next year. The target returned for a two-year curtain call in 1934, mostly because more cartwheels were needed as grant for silver certificates. The 1934-S proved to be one of the key coins in the sequence, along with the 1921 and the 1928. The mintmark is below the word ONE on the change. A handful of matte proofs exist, but only for 1921 and 1922.

Silver dollars-of both designs-were basically unseen by collectors pending the early 1960s, when silver certificate redemptions and the exposure surrounding the Treasury's sales of $1,000 bags of dollars to all comers shaped new relevance in the large silver coins. Ironically, Peace dollars had been swiftly offered at banks for decades, and following Treasury Department policy, were paid out before Morgan dollars were disbursed. Nevertheless few collectors were interested in completing sets of these relatively dear coins, judgment it more handy to assemble collections of the lesser denominations: A silver dollar represented a considerable sum in the 1930s and '40s-enough to buy five dozen eggs or ten boxes of Wheaties. It wasn't until the very early 1960s, when the Treasury had almost emptied its vaults of Peace dollars, that the more required after Morgans started to pour forwards, fueling collector enthusiasm for both sequence in the process.

The entire run of Peace dollars consists of just 24 coins, none of them great rarities. Thus, many collectors strive for finished year-and-mint sets. Pristine, high-grade pieces are elusive, however; weak strikes were common, and the broad, open plan made the coins vulnerable to dress and dent. Points to restrain for clothing are Liberty's face, neckline and the hair over her ear and above her temple. On the reorder, scuff will first show on the eagle's wing, leg and skull.

The Peace dollar's early demise was ominously symbolic. Four years later, in 1939, World War II erupted in Europe. The plan came very close to reappear once more in 1964, when Congress authorized production of 45 million new silver dollars, apparently in a strength to fulfil the wants of Nevada gambling casinos. With the slighter silver coins rapidly disappearing from circulation, this was viewed as a gift to exclusive good. After the Denver Mint produced 316,076 Peace dollars (square 1964) in May of 1965, order rescinded the authorization of President Johnson. Although all pieces were to be recalled and melted, rumors persist of several coins extant.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 little genuine silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Publishing Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

1904 Morgan Dollar, Brilliant Uncirculated

Political bulldoze, not civic petition, brought the Morgan cash into being. There was no unfeigned must for a new silver buck in the deceased 1870s; the last before "flip," the Liberty Seated dough, had been legislated out of reality in 1873, and barely anyone missed it.

Silver-mining happiness did neglect the buck, still, and lobbied Congress forcefully for its benefit. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was yielding giant quantities of silver, with ore appraise $36 million being extracted annually. After some futile attempts, the silver forces in Congress-led by Representative Richard ("Silver Dick") Bland of Missouri-finally disarmed authorization for a new silver money when Congress approved the Bland-Allison Act on February 28, 1878. This Acted essential the Treasury to obtain at market levels between two million and four million dollars of silver gold every month to be coined into dollars. This amounted to a small subsidy, arrival when the money's face penalty exceeded its intrinsic regard by only 0.07%.

In November 1877, virtually four months before passage of the Bland-Allison Act, the Treasury saw the handwriting on the roadblock and began making preparations for a new cash coin. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman designed Chief Engraver William Barber and one of his assistants, George T. Morgan, to make prototype dollars, with the best originate to be worn on the new coin. Actually, Linderman permanent this "contest" in Morgan's help; he had been dissatisfied with the work of the two Barbers-William and his son, Charles-and in 1876 had hired Morgan, a talented British engraver, with tactics to delegate him with new coin designs. At that time, resumption of silver dough penny was not yet planned, and Morgan began work on designs planned for the half money. Following Linderman's orders that a move of Liberty should return the thorough-notable depiction then in use, Morgan recruited Philadelphia drill coach Anna Willess Williams to pose for the new point.

Morgan's face features a left-facing portrait of Miss Liberty. The hitch depicts a rather skinny eagle which led some to vilify the coin as a "buzzard buck." The designer's early M appears on both sides-a first. It's on the truncation of Liberty's spit and on the ribbon's left round on the overturn. Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) are found below the circlet on the change. Points to confirm for carry on Morgans are the tresses above Liberty's eye and ear, the high upper fold of her cap and the crown of the eagle's breast.

Soon after production began, somebody advised the Mint that the eagle should have seven tail down, instead of the eight being exposed, and Linderman prepared this change. As an outcome, some 1878 Morgan dollars have eight feathers, some seven-and some show seven over eight. The seven-over-eight class is the scarcest, though all are somewhat customary.

More than half a billion Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 through 1904, with production taking place at the chief mint in Philadelphia and the branches in New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City. Carson City production was normally much minor and defunct all together after that outlet was bunged in 1893. The coin came back for one closing curtain call in 1921, when more than 86 million examples were bent under the language of the Pittman Act at Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver-but that was a bend-edged sword: Under the 1918 legislation, more than 270 million adult silver dollars, almost all Morgans, had been melted. The law necessary replacements for these, but most were of the Peace shape, which replaced the Morgan edition at the end of 1921.

In all, some 657 million Morgan dollars were formed in 96 different year-and-mint combinations. Hundreds of millions were melted over the time-by the government under the Pittman Act and the Silver Act of 1942, and by exclusive refiners since the delayed 1960s, when rising silver prices made this profitable. Despite all the melting, Americans had more than enough Morgans to pervade their daily wishes, since the dollars circulated often only in the West. As an outcome, colossal stockpiles remained in the Treasury's vaults, as well as reserve vaults nationwide. This explains why, so many Morgan dollars are so well preserved nowadays although their age; few saw actual use.

Even as the numismatic hobby underwent express lump beginning in the 1930s, hobby in other collecting areas far outpaced the mind paid to the large Morgan cartwheels. Most collectors favored the slash face-value coins (with their lower price) that were gladly available in circulation. Although it was viable to order silver dollars through banks or quickly from the Treasury, few noticed or cared. In the behind 1930s, however, some Washington dealers scholarly that the Treasury Department's Cash Room near the White House was paying out uncirculated Carson City money-coins having a market value of $5 or more at the time! More than a few dealers calmly exploited this discovery throughout the 1940s and '50s.

In the early 1960s, with silver rising in price, opportunists recognized the occasion to rotation securely profits by abiding silver certificates for money coins-mostly Morgans-at the Treasury. By the time the government clogged this rewarding glass in 1964, only 2.9 million cartwheels were left in its vaults, almost all of the scarce Carson City Morgans. The General isolated these Services Administration in a sequence of letters-bid sales from 1972 through 1980, earning big profits for the government and triggering great new notice in silver dollars.

Interest in Morgans was auxiliary heightened by the promotion surrounding the 400,000+ dollars found in the basement of Nevada eccentric LaVere Redfield's home. After word leaked out of the amazing store, some dealers got into the act, each jockeying for take in a crawl that ultimately wrecked with a Probate Court mart detained in January of 1976. At that auction, A-Mark Coins of Los Angeles captured the pile with a disarming bid of $7.3 million. The coins were cooperatively marketed by several dealers over a cycle of some days. Rather than depressing prices, the orderly spreading of these coins only fetched more collectors into the Morgan dollar fold. Similarly, the early 1980s witnessed the uniformly successful distribution of the 1.5 million silver dollars in the Continental Bank collect.

The Morgan dollar's scoop is a Cinderella tale: Until the 1960s, it was mostly unnoticed by the civic. Since then, it has gradually become among the most broadly pursued and preferred of all U. S. Coins. Although many collectors find the challenge of assembling an extreme court and mintmark set in Mint State compelling, others gratify themselves with collecting just one coin per year. Exceptional specimens are also wanted after by typeface collectors.

Major keys contain 1895, 1893-S, 1895-O, 1892-S, 1889-CC, 1884-S and 1879-CC. Mint minutes show that 12,000 dealing-smack dollars were made in Philadelphia in 1895, but only proofs are known; the mintage of these is 880. Proofs were made for every year in the series, but only a few brilliant proofs-variously reported at 15 to 24-are known for 1921. Prooflike Morgans also are well valued and are composed in both Prooflike (PL) and Deep-Mirror Prooflike (DPL or DMPL).

Few coins in U.S. account have been greeted with more indifference at the time of their release than this silver dollar. And few, if any, have then departed onto stimulate such passionate excitement among collectors.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States. A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fey, Dr. Michael S. And Oxman, Jeff, The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys, RCI Publishing, Morris Plains, NJ, 1996. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Pub. Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993. Van Allen, Leroy C. & Mallis, A. George, Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, 3rd Edition, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA 1991.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.