From my memory of the incident here's what happend. The government was short on Silver Dollars and the Gaming industry was yelling for coins to operate with.
The bill for the 1964
Peace dollar was introduced so that production could begin again. There was an argument within the walls of government whether a law was really required to strike the new 1964 Dollar coins. One side said that it was just a continuation of the
Peace dollar series while the other side argued that since we hadn't produced the coin in such a long time we needed a new law.
While the battle waged the mint began producing the dies and having the planchets made. When all was ready they wanted to test everything. Figuring approval was locked in they ran a bunch of the new dollars and offered two to each person working at the mint. The employees had to pay $2.00 to get them.
Little did the general public know there were several laws waiting approval before congress that would change our coinage system. The 1964
Peace dollar, The new Gaming Token Bill, What would become the 1965 Coinage Act that would removal all silver from coins.The lower denominations first. The half dollar silver content would be reduced to 40% the all silver would be removed by 1971. (this is what caused the half to stop circulating).
Congress knew that they wanted to go off the silver standard. When the heard about the dollar coins being minted and handed out the Secretary of the Treasury ordered all the coins to be returned. A few of the people claimed they had sent them to friends overseas. When the counting was complete there were 4 coins missing. The new dollar was killed.
In order to appease the gaming industry and fill their need for coins Congress authorized a new gaming token bill that would allow the casinos to produce their own $1.00 tokens with some harsh restrictions. First they could not be used for ANYTHING except the gaming tables and slot machines. You couldn't spend them in restaurants, gift shops nor any other merchants. The casinos were very happy with this since the cost of production, at the time, was about .18 cents each. The casino collected $1.00 for each token that left as a souvenir.
Now congress was in place where they could remove the silver and begin producing the copper-clad coins. Worried about a possible coin shortage the mint produced 1964 dated coins for about one and a half years (which had never happend before) and removed the mint marks from all coins in 1965,1966 and 1967.
Are the four 1964 silver dollars legal? Possible. If it can be proved that the mint legally released the coins to ther employees then the private ownership would be valid. If the release of the coins was proved to be illegal then the coins remain the property of the U.S. Government.
This brings us all the way back to the original question. Was the 1964 Silver Dollar just a continuation of the
Peace dollar series or was a new law needed before it could be issued.
In 1971 The last of the silver left our coins. The government wanted to eliminate the right of the casinos to produce their own tokens. They authorized the production of the first copper-clad dollar. The
Eisenhower dollar. By this time the casinos were making a fortune off the tokens and people were use to carrying nothing large than a quarter in their pocket. The new Dollar failed. The casinos, through their lobbists and congressmen block the removal of the 1964 token law.
catman
First Page
Posted 06/14/2005 12:40 pm
I think we'd be talking 7 figures if one ever legally came on the market! 
