1934 Peace Dollars 1921-1935 MS67

History

The Peace dollar arose from a competition held after World War I to produce a coin emblematic of peace, and the design submitted by Anthony de Francisci, then a 34-year-old sculptor, won unanimous approval from the commission. The Pittman Act of 1918 had required the Mint to strike millions of silver dollars, work that began with the Morgan design in 1921 before advocates persuaded Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon that he could authorize a new dollar design; Mellon's authority was recognized only in November 1921, and James Earle Fraser notified competitors by letter on November 19 with rules and a due date following on the 23rd. Production ran continuously from 1921 through 1928, then stopped for five years. Silver dollar coinage resumed in 1934 at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, and the denomination went dormant again after 1935.

Details

Anthony de Francisci designed both sides. The coin was struck in an alloy of 90 percent silver and 10 percent copper, weighing 26.73 grams and measuring 38.10 millimeters in diameter with a reeded edge, and contains 0.77344 troy ounce of silver. Philadelphia struck 954,057 pieces in 1934 and, as the parent mint, applied no mint mark. That figure is the lowest of the three 1934 issues, below the 1,569,500 struck at Denver.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty in left-facing profile wearing a radiate tiara, with LIBERTY above, the date below and the motto rendered in classical style as IN GOD WE TRVST. The reverse depicts a bald eagle at rest clutching an olive branch and perched on a rock inscribed PEACE, accompanied by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, E PLURIBUS UNUM and ONE DOLLAR. The issue belongs to the Type 2, low relief design used from 1922 onward, and PCGS recognizes a single circulation-strike issue for the date, hub combination III-B2, catalogued as VAM-1 and Breen-5733. The 1934 and 1935 coinages of all three mints came from new master dies and hubs, whose diagnostics are thinner motto letters and a straight tail on the R in TRVST.

Notable facts

• Genuine 1934 Philadelphia dollars are the usual host coins for counterfeit 1934-S pieces made by affixing an S mint mark, and Q. David Bowers recommends examining the junction of mint mark and field at 20x or higher, where an added S shows a seam all the way around while a genuine S shows flow lines continuous with the surrounding field.
• Strike quality on the issue is disputed: PCGS describes most examples as well struck with good luster, while Wayne Miller wrote in 1982 that Philadelphia Peace dollars of 1926 to 1935 are often weakly struck and many lack mint luster.
• Separating a high-end AU from a low-end Mint State coin is easiest on Liberty's cheek, rotated under a pinpoint light source to reveal friction.
• Undipped pieces sometimes carry a brownish or yellowish cast attributed to sulfur in the cloth bags used for storage.
• The 1934-S, not the lower-mintage Philadelphia coin, is regarded as the key date among Peace dollar business strikes.
• The Peace dollar was the last circulating United States dollar coin struck in silver.