Peace Dollar Key Dates: Valuable Coins?

The Peace Dollar is one of the most beloved United States coins of the Twentieth Century. Although it was only minted for ten years, it is a favorite of many collectors for its beauty and its nostalgic value since it was the main dollar coin throughout the Great Depression and World War II. Many a soldier, airman, or sailor (including my own father) carried one in his pocket from the time he enlisted until he came home after VJ Day. And the interest of many collectors of the next generation was piqued by that coin in Dad's pocket!

As the country has gone through some difficult economic times the Peace Dollar is one of those coins that has come into prominence again due to the fact that it is one of the true Silver Dollars the Mint has produced, the coin's composition being 90% Silver, 10% Copper by weight. A Peace Dollar weighs one ounce, and so it contains 9/10 of an ounce of Silver.

The first Peace Dollar was struck at 8:30 a.m., December 26, 1921, and production continued until the end of the year. In those few days, 1,006,473 Peace Dollars were struck.

The Peace Dollar was intended to commemorate both the end of World War I and the Conference on the Limitation of Armaments, which the Harding Administration felt was a major diplomatic victory in limiting the navies of the principal countries of the world to certain tonnages of ships. They thought that by limiting these armaments it would automatically prevent future wars.

The design

The 1928 Peace Dollar minted in Philadelphia Mint is considered the key date of the series. It has the lowest production figures, with just 360,649 coins minted for circulation. Realizing this, many people saved the coins. Consequently, 1928-P Peace Dollars are still relatively available across the grading spectrum.

One of the problems with the 1928-P is that it commonly has Strength of Strike issues.

1,728,000 Peace Dollars were minted in San Francisco during 1924.

The San Francisco Mint produced 1,610,000 Peace Dollars in 1925.

Anthony de Francisci's design featured his rendition of Lady Liberty on the obverse.

The Official Red Book series is full of wonderful reference books on individual coins, and this may be my favorite! A very illustrative and well written book encompassing not only Peace dollars, but history of the US Mint itself. Lots of information, great reading.

This is one of the first references discussing Prooflike Morgan Dollars. It was published in the late 70's as an update to Wayne Millers "An Analysis of Morgan and Peace Dollars"

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