Peace Dollar Questions

Well, the keys come first, of course: 1921, 1928-P and 1927-S (1934-P and 1934-S seem tough in Mint State, too).

Much of the series is relatively inexpensive even into Mint State, though. What isn't easy is finding examples with good strike and/or clean white planchets. Strikes are usually abysmal, and the effects of mint wash (powdery-looking white streaks which do not come off) are commonly found.

Look for sharp lettering (especially PEACE on the reverse) and well-detailed hair at and below where the ear would be.

I'm no real fan of Peace dollars, but a nice clean, strongly-struck white one is a wonder to behold.

The 1934-s is a key date..I like Peace dollars,but they are difficult to grade. They are less busy than the Morgan so lesser marks seem like more of a distraction , to me at least. Unfortunately the frosty luster gets a creamy to yellowish glow, and real white specimens don't come buy all that frequently and when they are there, obviously cost more

the 1921 date does not have good obverse hair detail even on unc coins due to high relief...

The 1928 does have the lowest mintage, but the 1934-S hits the hardest in the wallet (for the most part, MS, not all grades).

I agree with your statement, but the other poster said that the 1934-S was the key. It is not, the 1928 is. I pointed out mintage as a point of reference to scarcity. Yes, my 1934-S did cost more than other coins in my set (AU-50) from NGC, plucked from the slab and placed in the album.

I paid $432 dollars for the AU-58 1928 and $275 dollars
for the 1934-S in AU-50. I found far more 1934-S coins than
1928. The price guides all show higher prices for the 1934-s then the 1928 but walk into a coin store and see what they
really charge on a routine basis.

My most difficult coin to find was the 1928, took me almost the full two months to find one that would even be considered to be in put into my book when they were available. The 1934-S was the first coin I purchased, had handfuls to choose from, both raw and slabbed. As I mentioned above, 1934-S is a "Semi Key" date, not the "Key" date.

Only 360,000 people can have a complete set of " Peace dollars", that is not taking into consideration what was melted back in the "Hunt" era. Best Guess by the professionals is that roughly 200,000 +/- are still in existence today which places more emphasis on the 1928 and not the others. I am not really being argumentative, although my post sounds like I am, I just did a complete review of the history of the Peace dollar before I put my set together so I had relative information when purchasing.

Just to clarify, my previous post stated that the'34-s was a key date, not thee key date. As biokemist pointed out finding a nice high grade '34-s can be difficult to locate especially in original condition. It is similar to say the '83-s or 84-s Morgan which clearly were not low mintage dates but that price starts to climb exponentially as you go above au50

If you want to go beyond the coins that will go in your Dansco and expand into another area, there are VAMS just like there are for Morgan dollars. The Cherrypicker's guide will list some of the more common ones, and I am sure there are other reference books out there. Vamworld is a good site for an online reference: http://vamworld.com/Peace+Dollar+VAMs. It's not something that I have really pursued on a widespread basis, but I occasionally check my finds for anything valuable.