1921 Peace Dollar

The 1921 Peace Dollar marked the first year of issue for the series and is popular with collectors for its high relief design. This represented only the third circulation issue United States coin to be struck in high relief. Slightly more than one million coins were produced at the Philadelphia Mint from December 28, 1921 to December 31, 1921.

In production, the high relief made the coin difficult to strike and caused excessive die breakage. After the first few days, the Mint started using the dies longer at lower pressure. This extended the life of the dies, but resulted in the majority of 1921 Peace Dollars being weakly struck. Average or weakly struck examples will exhibit a lack of details on the hair near Liberty's ear and the feathers on the eagle's chest.

Despite the relatively high mintage for this issue, coins remain readily available in grades up to MS64. A large portion of the original mintage was held in government vaults and many others were saved by the public since it was the first year of the new design and a high relief coin. The 1921 Peace Dollar can be difficult to locate in grades MS65 and higher, particularly for examples with stronger strikes or attractive surfaces.