1925 Peace Dollars 1921-1935 MS64

History

Calls for a coin marking the end of World War I began soon after the November 11, 1918 armistice, when Frank Duffield, editor of The Numismatist, argued in that month's issue for a circulating victory coin. Representative William Ashbrook of Ohio, an American Numismatic Association member, carried the idea to the House Committee on Coinage, and on May 9, 1921 committee chairman Albert Henry Vestal of Indiana moved the authorizing legislation. The Commission of Fine Arts opened a design competition on November 23, 1921, giving the invited sculptors roughly three weeks for sketches and only four additional days for finished plaster models so that striking could begin before the year ended. The first-year coins were produced in high relief, which proved troublesome on the presses, and the relief was lowered in 1922, the format used for the 1925 issue.

Details

Anthony de Francisci designed both sides of the dollar, and at 34 he was the youngest of the competitors. His wife, Teresa de Francisci, is generally identified as the model for the Liberty head. The 1925 dollars struck at Philadelphia carry no mint mark, and they follow the low-relief configuration adopted three years earlier rather than the high-relief treatment of 1921.

Features

The obverse shows Liberty in profile wearing a radiate crown, with the date below and the legends LIBERTY and IN GOD WE TRUST. On the reverse a large bald eagle perches on a rock, clutching an olive branch. The word PEACE is inscribed on the rock beneath the eagle, giving the series its name.

Notable facts

• Only 1,006,473 silver dollars carried the new Peace design in 1921, as most dollars struck that year were still Morgans.
• The series was produced from 1921 through 1928 and again in 1934 and 1935.
• The San Francisco Mint struck 1,610,000 dollars in 1925, a fraction of the Philadelphia output.
• The 1925-S is known for a generally poor strike, with weakness concentrated on the reverse high points and especially the eagle.
• PCGS estimates that roughly 30,000 1925-S dollars grade MS60 or better, though the date is extraordinarily rare at MS65 and above.