The Morgan Dollar set starts in 1878 and were produced annually until 1904. The design was restarted in 1921 but just for that one year in order to alleviate a silver shortage, caused in part by the Great World War that ended in 1918.

Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars are possibly the most collected coins in the world. The US Mint is re-imagining these exciting issues and creating a lot of buzz in the process.

Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars are possibly the most collected coins in the world. It’s virtually impossible to go to a major coin show and find any dealers that do not offer these coins as part of their inventory, unless the dealer is a currency dealer, an exonumia specialist, an ancient coin dealer or a world coin or currency dealer. Virtually everyone else has them in their inventory and actively makes a market in the big, heavy, silver historic coins.

With over ¾ of a Troy ounce of silver and 100 years of history, rooted in America’s West, what’s not to like? The Morgan Dollar set starts in 1878 and were produced annually until 1904. The design was restarted in 1921 but just for that one year in order to alleviate a silver shortage, caused in part by the Great World War that ended in 1918.

Designed by George T. Morgan, the coin bears his name and displays an allegorical representation of Miss Liberty on the obverse. The reverse, of course, depicts a strong American Bald Eagle, majestically with wings outspread, clutching both arrows and an olive branch, demonstrating that it indeed was ready for war or peace.

Another consequence of the Great War was a desire for peace and so the United States Mint discontinued Morgan’s design and looked to an Italian immigrant, Anthony de Francisci, to create a coin that was emblematic of America’s desire for Peace. De Francisci created the Peace Silver Dollar. The coins were struck between 1921 and 1935 and his design was not radically too different from Morgan’s! The obverse again displayed an allegorical representation of Miss Liberty while the reverse displayed an American Bald Eagle once again. But this time, the eagle designed was more subdued. There were no outspread wings this time. The eagle, perched on a rock, is carefully watching the events of the world unfold, but at the base of the rock was the word “PEACE”. Peace Dollars were struck from 1921 until 1928 and then again in 1934 and 1935.

While the Morgan series has a few individual dates and mintmarks that are scarce and expensive, a date or mintmark set of Peace dollars is within the reach of most collectors.

Since 1935, these series have remained dormant, except for 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson authorized the striking of 45 million 1964-dated coins at the Denver Mint in order to alleviate a coin shortage. But that presidential order was later rescinded in 1965 and all of the coins were supposed to be destroyed. Although rumors exist that some of the coins escaped, none have surfaced to date so that remains just a rumor. The Morgan and Peace dollar series both settled back into their slumber for the next 56 years.

NEW LEGISLATION

H. R. 6192 became Public Law 116-286 and is called 'The 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act.' This law instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to strike coinage in honor of the Centennial Anniversary in 2021 of the last of the Morgan Silver Dollars and the transition to the Peace Silver Dollar style.

Because these coins will replicate the original Morgan and Peace Silver Dollar designs, the Mint has assumed that these coins will be popular not only with coin collectors but also with the American public as well.

Most legislative Acts authorize maximum mintages that can be struck. However, this Act permits the Mint to determine how many coins will be struck, what finishes the coins will receive and where they will be produced.

The original Morgan silver dollar was struck at Philadelphia, Denver, San Francisco, Carson City, and the New Orleans mints, while the Peace silver dollar was struck in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. Their 2021 Morgan counterparts would be struck at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco and all Peace Dollars would be struck in Philadelphia. Additionally, coins bearing an “O” privy mark for New Orleans and a “CC” privy mark for Carson City would also be struck in Philadelphia. That is how the Mint decided to pay homage to these two no-longer-functioning but important branch mint facilities.

The remaining four releases were scheduled for pre-sale in early June for the 2021-P, 2021-D, and 2021-S Morgan Dollars will again each have a mintage of 175,000 coins and the 2021 Peace Dollar will have a mintage of 200,000 when it is released.

But the Mint has postponed (as of May 27th) the release of these coins, in response to the aforementioned problems by collectors in accessing their website. In their email the Mint stated that this postponement comes “[in response to] the extraordinary volume of web traffic [that] caused significant numbers of Mint customers to experience website anomalies that resulted in their ability to complete transactions.”

Collecting these coins and seeing the 19th century coins lying next to these 21st century coins gives you a sense of stewardship of George T. Morgan’s and Anthony de Francisci’s most important contributions to numismatics.

2021 Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars