Peace Dollars

I too think Francisci's design is nicer and more representative of the woman of the "20s" than the "Rubenesk" Morgan. But I wish it could have been stuck properly.

As to Lady Liberty's mouth agape; I seem to remember reading somewhere that Francisci used his wife as his model. That explains everything, since when has YOUR wife stopped yelling at you?

I thought the same thing and even thought that Francisci copied the design from Saint Gaudens. I'll bet someone at the mint thought the same also. Looked it up again just to verify, my source was from Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of US and Colonial Coins. Teresa Francisci was just 23 when he used her as the model for his design.

I don't remember reading if Francisci was of the "St. Gaudens" school. I do believe that the "school" had a lasting affect on coin design. I still think some of the most handsome coins come from this era.

If you think about it, both artists were affected by the Art Nouveau movement. The move to more slender and sensual images of women were creeping into coinage all over the world. The French Mint fully embraced the movement and many of their depictions of Liberty were very much like Fancisci and Saint Gaudens offering.

Just my opinion, but if you really look at the images on the coins, there are definite differences in the noes, eye, mouth, and jaw. They're subtle, but they're there.

And is equally similar to the un-minted Saint Gaudens l Cent below:



Took me a while to find it.

Hmmmm... you should be able to complete that fairly easily (minus the 1928... depending on grade, she is expensive and THE KEY to the set)
Love the album.

No, the dies were not designed for that purpose at all.
The 'only' difference between a reverse die and an obverse die is the design on the face of each. They will both fit into either lower or upper location. Two reverses or two obverses in the press is entirely possible. There is absolutely no proof of which die was the upper other than collar clash marks on a few coins of one year at one mint. Documentation would have to refer to 'that', and 'that' is far from being conclusive, as such documentation has not been produced from the Mint Archives as of yet.

Dad, I actually 'have' seen 'information' printed on the reverse die being the upper die.

Yes, this particular bit of hearsay very well could be true, but until someone produces the actual mint 'document' verifying this, it remains hearsay. Breen's, Newcomb's, or anyone else's thoughts put to paper may qualify as 'documentation' to some folks, but not to me. Even Van Allen is careful to word his thoughts on the matter as follows:




Now here is what I said on the page preceding this one:




To expound upon this point, I too believe that the reverse die was the upper die on some (if not all) Peace dollars. Do I believe that documentation attesting to this exists in the Archives? Yes, I do, but until such a document is actually uncovered from the Mint Archives, I do not consider it to be documented.

My belief is based on evidence of collar teeth marks transferred to the reverse of coins, and is not based on something somebody else just happened to speculate on, and put it in print thereby conjuring the notion of 'documentation'. That is how myths get started, and that is why not 'all' knowledge is king.

while the best "speculation" is many times considered the knowledge, it's just simply not true....though it is given much thought it's not absolute.....the facts are the facts, which are not absolutely presented in this case....and I do believe the marks from the process lead us on to the right path....while Peace dollars still have much to research, I personally don't think the minting processes of the Morgan era....meant there were never any changes in the process over the 50 some years, as if no lessons were learned.......clearly things did change...even in 1921 Morgans........Peace dollars had the problems, but (my wild guess here) that 90% of the Morgan issues did not occur with the Peace dollars...Some things in the process did change.

Remmy, no need to dig anything up for my benefit. If you feel that adamant about it, then I will certainly take your word for it, and consider myself corrected. Hope you don't hate me for being the way I am about not believing things without credible evidence, but I have been conditioned to this state by all of the horsepucky that I've been fed elsewhere. If you say that it is so, then I will accept that.

Dancing fruit for you as an appeasement: