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 Replies: 32 / Views: 4,494 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1450 Posts |
I know that Morgan dollars often sat in bank vaults for 80 years after being minted, but what happened to the millions of Peace dollars? Did they circulate or did they also sit in vaults for decades. I can buy a very nice 1928 Peace dollar for $300-400 bucks. That is small change for many Morgans.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
12057 Posts |
Unlike the bags and bags full of Morgans stored in the vaults, there were many fewer bags of Peace dollars. They did circulate. They were given as gifts, used (in the first couple of years) in casinos, paid out by the Treasury, etc. The 82 million coins struck in 1922 and 1923 proved more than sufficient to meet demand, so 1925 would be the last year with a mintage over 10m. There was no need to store the coins away in vaults in any quantity. The coming Depression mostly drove Peace dollars out of circulation. Unlike Morgan dollars, the Peace dollar issues were not widely saved by period collectors; they did not have the "Wild West aura" or numismatic history of the Morgans. Strike and production quality was largely indifferent, especially following 1923, and unlike Morgans even a PL Peace dollar is a significant rarity (I've never seen one in person) and I don't think DMPL Peace dollars exist at all (I'd love to see one!) The vivid toning seen on some Morgans is scarcely seen on Peace dollars; worse, a rinse used at the time caused many of the ones that WERE stored in the vaults to discolor with ugly white spotting and hazing. The later dates were not saved in quantity in high grade MS, and finding MS65 and higher examples of most of the 1926 and later issues is onerous and in many cases very expensive. Peace dollars were part of the GSA sale, but almost entirely circulated coins, and in soft packs; these are moderately scarce to rare depending on the coin. The Redfield hoard had a decent number of Peace dollars, but they were of secondary interest to the Morgans, and of lower quality (most ended up in black Paramount holders graded "MS60") Member ANA - EAC - TNA - SSDC - CCT #890 "Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done." -- Louis D. Brandeis |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3323 Posts |
Very interesting read, paralyse! Thanks.
"Nummi rari mira sunt, si sumptus ferre potes." - Christophorus filius Scotiae
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Pillar of the Community
United States
887 Posts |
Paralyse's post is why I personally don't see the value to Morgans, why I don't really collect them (I do have some), and why I see more 'value' in other coins. Maybe I'm a pessimist, but I think one day collector's are going to say to themselves, "Gee, almost every Morgan out there is an MS example. Maybe they're pretty common", and the bottom will fall out on them. I personally like the well-circulated Morgans, and think they are the one's that should have the value, much like some examples of the old Commemoratives.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
800 Posts |
Quote:
I personally like the well-circulated Morgans, and think they are the one's that should have the value  |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1450 Posts |
Tell this to the guy trying to buy a 1893-S or 1889CC Morgan dollar in MS condition. |
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Rest in Peace
United States
17900 Posts |
Morgan's fall into the 'most collected' range as do Lincoln's, Indian Head cents, Buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, etc. - primarily because of their ease of purchase. All of those popular series require dedication and money for sets, regardless of the choices of what specific coins to include in the sets. Peace dollars don't make it into that popularity simply because most of those still in existence are ugly. The huge open spaces on the obverse show every mark or scratch. Plus, it's so extremely hard to find ANY Peace with nice toning that most collectors don't even try to find lovely toned Peace dollars. Most toning is just yucky. I collect by date, and of the 14 coins for that 1934 date the 34-S Peace is the monster in the room. The other 13 can be found in MS with diligence. That 34-S Peace is the only one that absolutely must exceed $1000. Plus, finding one that isn't ugly (by my standards) is really tough even if you decide to drop to an AU grade. An AU-58 may still bust $1000 if it's nice. So another reason Peace are not collected as strongly is because you start running into tough coins after only a few have been bagged. You can find a Morgan you need in the 50-66 grade almost every day. That is not the case with Peace. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
What happened depends upon where you were.
Certain areas of the US used them more than $1 currency.
I can't go back as far as 1935 but they circulated very well in Montana in 1960 and Alaska in 1963.
And the mention of casinos was correct.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
I read (and I forget where) that many millions were melted to make conducting wire for the atomic bomb project, and these were disproportionately Peace dollars since they hadn't circulated so much. |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
4590 Posts |
The withdrawls from the Treasury were in the form of bullion bars. 400,000 bars of 1,000 ounces of silver each. The silver was used instead of copper for the Oak Ridge Uranium refinery. https://www.pugetsound.edu/files/re...20Silver.pdfI've never seen anything that says Peace dollars were melted, rather assumed it was the Treasury's working supply of silver - which would have been larger than normal due to limited coinage activities during the depression. The silver dollars would have been delivered and used as backing for silver certificates. -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Moderator
 United States
188207 Posts |
A fascinating topic. I had never really considered this before, but I do enjoying learning the background. I am more fond of the Peace dollar over the Morgan, for personal reasons. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
887 Posts |
Quote:Tell this to the guy trying to buy a 1893-S or 1889CC Morgan dollar in MS condition. There are exception in every series |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
5239 Posts |
@BStrauss3 thanks for the correction. Looking at the Peace dollar mintages, even if they had melted them all it would not have been nearly enough for the 400,000,000 ounces for that project. I am now wondering why the 1934 and 1935 peace seem to be so much scarcer and costlier than the 1927 and older, even for the years/mm that had the same mintage. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4590 Posts |
It would be a lot of work, and only so-so accuracy, but the annual reports of the mint are available online... https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/007822982 See the bit about 242M ounces - that's what backed the silver certificates. At 1.29$/oz, that's $312,599,024 in silver certificates. Elsewhere they indicate what was estimated to be in circulation:  -----Burton 50+ year / Life / Emeritus ANA member (joined 12/1/1973) Life member: Numismatics International, CONECA Member: TNA, FtWCC, NETCC, EveryCountry (online) coin club Owned by three cats and a wife of 40+ years (joined 1983) Author: 3rd Edition of the Sample Slabs book, https://www.sampleslabs.info/ |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
Great thread with lots of good info.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7510 Posts |
Great topic,loads of new info,very educational.thanks everyone!
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Replies: 32 / Views: 4,494 |
Posted 08/15/2017 11:08 pm
