1923 Peace $1 PCGS MS66 CAC

Introduction

The Peace Dollar, graded by PCGS as MS66 and adorned with the coveted CAC label, first introduced in 1921, is, and always has been, high in demand. With the ending of the “war to end all wars,” Americans were looking forward to an era of normality, peace, and prosperity. The idea of a coin to commemorate the end of World War I was gaining traction.

History

The Pittman Act of 1918 resulted in a loss of over 270 million silver dollar coins, which was over half the mintage of Morgans. The Pittman Act, however, also required that the government create a new silver dollar, to be struck using the silver purchased from the mines in the West. Around that time, World War I had just ended, giving thought to creating a commemorative world peace coin following all of the bloodshed and destruction.

There was fear that this new design would be delayed, because, at the time when the Peace Dollar bill was introduced to Congress for approval on May 9, 1921, the U.S. Mint started striking the Morgan Silver Dollars again. The Treasury Department, however, liked the idea of a new silver dollar and announced a design competition. What ANA did not realize at that point was that congressional approval was not required to change the design, as the Morgan Silver Dollar had been in use for over 25 years. Nevertheless, it was because of this competition that we now see the iconic designs and America’s most beautiful coins that were created in the first decades of the 20th century – Mercury Dimes, Washington Quarters, Walking Liberty Half Dollars, Standing Liberty Quarters, and what would be the Peace Silver Dollars. The Peace Dollar was minted from 1921–1928 and again in 1934 and 1935. In fact, the Peace Dollar ended up being the last U.S. Silver dollar coin minted for circulation in this last year of mint.

Design

The winning artist for the coin was Anthony de Francisci, a young Italian immigrant. Although he used his wife as a model, de Francisci said of his Miss Liberty, “It is a composite face and in that way, typifies something of America … the intellectual speed and vigor and virility America has as well as its youth.” The first Peace Dollar was struck at the Philadelphia Mint on December 26, 1921.