The Silver Peace Dollar - A Brief History

The Silver Peace Dollar was introduced as a peace commemorative coin to replace the Morgan silver dollar (1878-1904, 1921). Designed by Anthony De Francisci, a total of three U. S. Mints were involved in the production of Peace dollars: Denver; Philadelphia; and San Francisco.

Silver Peace Dollars didn't begin production until December of 1921. Only the Philadelphia mint produced Peace dollars with a 1921 date - a total of 1,006,473 for the month and year. The total number of Silver Peace Dollars minted by all three mints from 1921 through 1935 (with the exception of 1929-1933 when none were minted) was approximately 190,577,000. 

In the mid-1960s, an additional mintage of 45,000,000 silver dollars was authorized. With this authorization, the Denver mint produced 316,076 Peace dollars with a 1964 date. Before being released into circulation, a decision was made to scrap those plans. No more silver dollars were minted and all of the 1964 Peace dollars were melted.

The Peace Silver Dollar - Useful Facts

The Peace silver dollar features the head of Lady Liberty on the obverse side and a perched eagle on the reverse (click on either image of this Peace 1922 Silver Dollar to see a larger, more detailed image). 

The mint mark is in the lower left on the reverse side, under the "ONE" (click on the above right image - the red dot is where the mint mark is located). Mint marks are "D" for Denver and "S" for the San Francisco Mints. If no mint mark appears, it was minted in Philadelphia.

Peace silver dollars are 90% silver and 10% copper. Uncirculated Peace Silver Dollars contain .7734 Troy ounces of pure silver (24.0566 grams) with a gross weight of .859 Troy ounces (26.728 grams). Circulated Peace dollars are considered to contain .7650 Troy ounces of pure silver due to the "wear factor" in handling these coins. Circulated silver coins (including Peace silver dollars) are referred to as "junk silver" but this is the kind of "junk" you want to own.


To determine the silver (melt) value of a circulated Peace silver dollar, multiply .7650 times the current spot price of silver (found on the Home Page).

Example: $17.00 x .7650 = $13.005