1923 Peace Dollars 1921-1935 XF45

History

Calls for a coin marking the end of World War I began circulating soon after the armistice of November 11, 1918, when Frank Duffield, editor of The Numismatist, argued for a circulating victory coin, and Representative William Ashbrook of Ohio, himself an American Numismatic Association member, carried the proposal to the House Committee on Coinage. Albert Henry Vestal of Indiana, who chaired that committee, moved the enabling legislation forward on May 9, 1921, and the Commission of Fine Arts opened a three-week design competition on November 23. The idea had first been floated for a half dollar before it was applied to the silver dollar instead. The first Peace dollars were struck in late December 1921 in high relief, which proved difficult to produce, so the design was lowered for 1922, making the 1923-S a coin of the modified low-relief type.

Details

Anthony de Francisci designed both sides, using his wife, Teresa Cafarelli de Francisci, as the model for the obverse head of Liberty. He was 34 and comparatively inexperienced when his entry was chosen unanimously from the closed competition. The San Francisco Mint struck 19,020,000 pieces in 1923, a record for any San Francisco Peace dollar.

Features

The obverse carries Liberty in profile, while the reverse shows a large bald eagle holding an olive branch and perched on a rock inscribed PEACE. The reverse as originally announced placed the eagle on a broken sword to signify that the war had given way to peace, but the public read the image as defeat and surrender, and the sword was removed before release, so it appears on no 1923-S dollar. Strike quality is the defining characteristic of the date: the typical example is weakly struck, dull, and heavily bagmarked, a trait common to S-mint Peace dollars and pronounced here.

Notable facts

• A notice on page 416 of the June 1934 Numismatist informed collectors that Uncirculated 1923-S dollars could still be had for face value plus first-class postage.
• Howland Wood, curator of the American Numismatic Society, told the ANA that the new design was "bold and original," adding that if the artists had been given only two weeks, the fault lay with the government rather than the designer.
• Designs were solicited from eight sculptors, Robert Aitken, Chester Beach, Victor David Brenner, Anthony de Francisci, John Flanagan, Henry Hering, Hermon A. MacNeil and Adolph Weinman, who were not notified until November 19, 1921.
• The series was produced in two blocks, 1921 through 1928 and 1934 through 1935, with the gap reflecting the collapse in demand during the Great Depression.
• Certified populations cluster at MS-63 with a fair number of MS-64 coins, while Gem examples are rare.
• Peace dollars were also struck at Denver in 1964 and again in 2021, neither issue for circulation, and the 1964-D pieces were officially all melted.