Peace Dollars
Though it was originally called “the war to end all wars,” World War I was not the final war that America would face. However, it did stir up a longing for peace, which resulted in the League of Nations, as well as the less ambitious Peace dollar. Though the United States would go on to shun the League of Nations, it did warmly embrace the dollar.
The Peace dollar was issued in response to the desire for a coin that would commemorate the peace that had been restored following the devastating war. A key player in the creation of the coin was the American Numismatic Association, though it did come at a time that the US Mint did find a need for millions of silver dollars to be produced. The Pittman Act, enacted in 1918, clearly benefited silver mining, allowing the melting of 350 million silver dollars to bullion, either to sell or to mint more coins. The majority of the melted silver would go on to be sold to the British, helping the wartime ally with a monetary crisis taking place in India.
The loss of this was no heavy blow to the U.S economy, as silver dollars were seeing limited use. There was minimal demand for the coins, so little that, in fact, none had been minted for more than 12 years, since 1904. Aside from the fact that the Pittman Act required replacement coins, there was no reason to strike a new coin, but in 1921 the price of silver had fallen and Morgan silver dollars were being produced once more.
On May 9th, 1921, Congress legislated that a new silver dollar be created marking the new postwar peace. In a joint resolution, it was agreed that the new coin would bear a design that commemorated the resolution of the war between Germany and the United States. To decide on the designs for the coin, the federal Commission of Fine Arts garnered a competition involving nine invitees, including famous artists such as Victor D. Brenner, Hermon A. MacNeil, and Adolph A. Weinman, who had all designed US coins previously. However, in a surprising turn of events, the winner turned out to be an Italian immigrant, Anthony de Francisci, who modeled Liberty after his wife.
The reverse of the coin features an eagle atop a craggy rock, looking the sun through a series of rays. The rock has the word “peace” imposed upon it, which is unique to this coin and this coin only – no other US coin ever produced has had the same motto.
The production of the 1921 Peace dollars originally revealed that the relief was too high, which was rectified in 1922 – unfortunately, this lowered the aesthetic appeal of the coin. The Pittman Act’s requirements were fulfilled in 1928, after which production of the Peace dollar was stopped, and even tighter was the lid on silver dollars placed when the Depression began the following year in 1929. Until the 1960s, the Peace dollar would remain in obscurity, and even now weak strikes are far more common than high quality pieces. President Johnson would order their recall and melt in 1965, though supposedly, some handful of coins survived.