1921 Peace Dollar

In 1921, The United States Mint struck two types of silver dollars – the Morgan silver dollar (also referred to as the Liberty Head silver dollar) and the Peace dollar. Peace silver dollars were designed by an Italian-American sculptor named Anthony de Francisci. He enlisted his wife, Teresa Cafarelli de Francisci, to serve as the model for the head of Miss Liberty, who is seen on the obverse of the Peace dollar with wind-blown hair and a crown, a depiction that very much resembles the head on the Statue of Liberty.

The first Peace dollars were struck with a high-relief design, though the excessive pressure required to bring up the details on the high-relief Peace dollar ended up damaging the coin’s dies very quickly. This problem would be resolved in 1922 with a lower-relief version of the Peace dollar, which would be struck until the end of the coin series in 1935.

In all, only 1,006,473 Peace dollars were struck in 1921, some of which were struck in a matte proof version. 1921 Peace dollars are quite popular with coin collectors as a first-year type coin, and thus are in high demand in all grades. Values range from around $125 for VF-20 1921 Peace dollar up to $300 for one grading MS-60. In the upper circulated grades, values can reach into the thousands. Proof 1921 Peace dollars command a hefty $50,000-plus.