By Mike Thorne, Coins Magazine March 16, 2010

In my 50+ years as a coin collector, I’ve seen a wealth of changes in numismatics. For one thing, prices of all coins have gone up enormously. In my first copy (1958) of A Guide Book of United States Coins (Red Book), for example, the most expensive coin is the 1822 gold $5 piece at $15,000. Today, several coins sell for more than $1 million annually.

As coin values have gone up, the number of recognized grades has increased accordingly. In the 1958 Red Book, the 1893-S Morgan dollar was listed in just two grades, Very Fine ($40) and Unc. ($400). The 2010 Red Book gives values for the same date in seven grades ranging from VF-20 ($7,250) to Mint State-65 ($625,000).

Another major difference, of course, is the use of Sheldon numbers to indicate different grades. Although William Sheldon published Penny Whimsy in 1958, as a revision of Early American Cents (1949), the numbering system he invented to show the relationship between grades of early cents and their values didn’t become part of the general collector lexicon until many years later.

Another major change in the hobby occurred in 1986, when the Professional Coin Grading Service introduced the idea of grade certification and coin encapsulation (slabbing). Now, literally millions of coins have been encapsulated (some collectors would say “entombed”), and it’s hard to find coins of significant value that aren’t slabbed. PCGS was quickly followed by Numismatic Guaranty Corp., and other certification services soon entered the market.

Recently, the two certification originators have developed yet another wrinkle: Set Registry. On Numismatic Guaranty Corp.’s and the Professional Coin Grading Service’s Web sites, you can list all your coins in a particular series that have been graded by the certification service that sponsors the site. After you’ve completed this listing, your set, complete or incomplete, is compared with other similar sets that have been registered on the site.

As PCGS expresses it, “you can start with one coin and gradually build a set or you can add an entire collection. Tracking your inventory with market prices, free submissions, and recognition from your peers are just some of the many benefits. Part of the fun of the PCGS [or NGC] Set Registry is watching your set move up in ratings as you add coins.”

Another benefit to Set Registry that PCGS acknowledges is that the registry provides a valuable pedigree for your collection. In coin auctions that I’ve written about, coins that were part of a registry set have often commanded larger amounts than similar coins without that pedigree.

Again, from the PCGS site, “The PCGS Set Registry enables you to track your inventory, market price, costs and populations, build and update sets, enjoy friendly competition, meet other collectors who share common interests, create a photo album of your collection, and share your sets with others. In addition, you can perform ‘What if?’ scenarios to see how the addition of new items will change your set ratings.”

I will confess to you that the PCGS Set Registry program has definitely changed my focus and interest in coin collecting. Many years ago, I sold the sets of coins that I had assembled and resolved to concentrate on certified key coins (e.g., 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cents, 1893-S Morgan dollars, etc.) and gold (e.g., early U.S. gold as types rather than as sets, foreign gold). The one series that I retained and worked to complete was Washington quarters in mint state condition, all certified, of course.

With the advent of the set registry programs, I decided to enter all my PCGS-graded Washington quarters on the site to see how my efforts compared with other listed collections. This proved to be so much fun that I decided to upgrade the collection and obtain, in high grades, any pieces I didn’t already have.

Of course, one thing led to another, and before I knew it, I had started working on a Peace dollar registry set, which is the topic of this article. Before I recount my efforts in this endeavor, however, I’ll give you a brief overview of the Peace dollar series as a collectible.

I think it’s fair to say that if you want to collect silver dollars, large coins that actually contain a significant amount of silver, then the Peace dollar series, minted from 1921 to 1935, is the one to start with. For one thing, a complete collection of all date/mintmark combinations consists of just 24 coins.

Only one of the 24, the 1928, is pricy in all grades and thus qualifies as a “key coin.” Relative to such key coins as the 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent and the 1916-D Mercury dime, the 1928 Peace dollar could hardly be called a “stopper.”

So, as interesting and collectible as the Peace dollar is, how did it come about? The answer lies earlier than 1921, with the end of the first world war. There was an interest among some for a new coin to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I.

At the annual American Numismatic Association convention held in Chicago in 1920, self-promoter Farran Zerbe “gave an impassioned plea for a new silver dollar, one whose design would commemorate the signing of the peace treaties ending World War I,” according to Robert Julian, writing in David Bowers’ Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States.

By early 1921, congressmen William Ashbrook and Albert Vestal had thrown their weight behind the idea of a peace dollar. Other officials sold on the idea included Charles Moore, the chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, Mint Director Raymond T. Baker, and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. A circular announcing a design contest was sent in late November to eight prominent artists, which included Victor D. Brenner (Lincoln cent), Hermon MacNeil (Standing Liberty quarter), and John Flanagan (Washington quarter). The winner, however, was Anthony de Francisci, who based his obverse design of Liberty on his wife, Teresa Cafarelli de Francisci.

De Francisci’s winning designs were accepted on Dec. 19, and he was asked to send plaster models as soon as possible. Meanwhile, a political problem arose over the artist’s reverse design, which featured an eagle breaking a sword. Although it wasn’t what De Francisci intended, veterans perceived this as an admission of American defeat in the war.

The “problem” was unloaded on Mint chief engraver George T. Morgan, who quickly made a plaster model based on an alternative de Francisci design. This showed an eagle looking toward the east (Europe) at the rising sun. The eagle stands on a mountain top above the word “PEACE.”

As you can imagine, the speed of the process (all 1921 Peace dollars were struck in the last week of the year) left little time for testing the feasibility of the design for striking. Julian reports that die breakage was very high. Also, the design generally produced weak strikes in the center (Liberty’s hair, the eagle’s feathers).

As it turned out, the 1921 Peace dollar, struck in high relief with resulting weakness in the center of the design, is a one-year type coin, as later Peace dollars have much lower relief. Although it has frequently been reported that Morgan lowered the relief by pounding on both sides with a board, Julian writes, “It is more likely that Morgan simply made new plasters and reduced them on the Janvier [machine] in the regular way.”

After the change to a lowered relief for the 1922 Peace dollars, the coin was produced regularly through 1928. From 1929-1933, no Peace dollars were coined. The series experienced a last gasp in 1934 and 1935, as one of many efforts by President Franklin Roosevelt to bring the country out of the Depression. Roosevelt “pushed through Congress a bill mandating the purchase of newly-mined [sic] silver at a price…above the market. The Treasury paid 77 cents per ounce at a time when silver brought well below that elsewhere.”

Chief engraver John Sinnock slightly altered the earlier die style, and this new design was used to coin approximately 7 million more Peace dollars. One of these, the 1934-S, is considered a great condition rarity, which is a coin common in lower grades but rare in higher grades.

In fact, the 1934-S is the only coin in my PCGS Registry Set that is not uncirculated, as it grades Extremely Fine-40. Obviously, this is a coin that’s ripe for upgrading. According to the February Numismatic News “Coin Market,” the date takes a big jump from EF-40 to About Uncirculated-50 ($172 to $475). I bid on an AU-55 at auction, but the price quickly went beyond what I wanted to pay.

Of course, the date takes an even bigger jump from AU to MS, as an MS-60 lists for a whopping $1,800. The price more than doubles from there to MS-63 ($3,850), goes up another $1,000 in MS-64, and is $7,750 in MS-65.

This is not the highest MS-65 price in the series, however, as the 1934-S is dwarfed in value in that grade by several earlier S-mint products (1924-S, 1925-S, 1927-S, 1928-S). The king of the hill is the 1928-S, which is valued at either $29,500 or $24,850, depending on the size of the mintmark (the large S is worth more than the small S).

As it currently stands, my Registry Set is 95.83 percent complete; I’m missing the 1921. Actually, I have a 1921 graded MS-63 by NGC. I’ve just recently submitted it to PCGS in the “crossover” category. In other words, I’m hoping it will cross over as an MS-63 from NGC to PCGS.

Other than the circulated 1934-S, I have only one coin that grades less than MS-63: an MS-62 1928. The 1928 has the lowest mintage in the series (360,649). It stays rather steady in value in all circulated grades ($345-$415 from Good-4 to AU-50), jumps slightly in MS-60 ($495) and then leaps to $865 in MS-63. I paid $557 for the one I have in MS-62 but don’t consider an upgrade to either MS-63 or MS-64 ($1,150) out of the question.

The common dates (P mints from 1922-1925) are easy to obtain and inexpensive in MS-65. Values for these four range from $148 to $171, and I have them all in MS-65. In a couple of cases, however, I had to pay above the market value for the coin I bought. For example, I paid $189 for the 1924, which lists for $171. Worse, I stretched to $177.50 for the 1922, which lists for $153.

I do have one other date in MS-65: the 1935. With a mintage of 1,576,000, this date is valued at $765. I paid $510 for one in a Heritage Exclusively Internet auction.

Five of my Peace dollars are in MS-63: 1927-D, 1927-S, 1928-S, 1934-D, and 1935-S. In several cases, these are dates that jump in value considerably between MS-63 and MS-64. The 1927-D, for example, goes from $335 to $865, whereas the 1927-S rises from $420 to $1,125 in the two grades. I can certainly see the possibility of upgrading some of these to the next higher grade.

I have the remaining 11 dates in MS-64, which is usually valued well below MS-65. Again, a few are candidates for upgrade. The 1922-D, for example, lists at $615 in MS-65, which seems doable. The 1922-S, on the other hand, jumps tenfold between the grades, from $245 to $2,475. That seems a lot to pay for a coin that probably wouldn’t look much different from the one I now have, for which I paid $230.

It’s hard to imagine that I would want to get the 1923-S in MS-65, as it goes from $365 in MS-64 to $8,500 in MS-65. Then there’s the 1924-S, which leaps from $1,375 to $10,750. But even that pales in comparison to the 1925-S, which lists for a paltry $825 in MS-64 before vaulting to $27,500 in MS-65.

About the 1925-S, Bowers writes, “Uncirculated 1925-S dollars are much more plentiful than 1924-S, despite the lower mintage of 1925-S [1,610,000 vs. 1,728,000]. However, in MS-65 grade, the 1925-S is surprisingly rare. Indeed, it and the 1928-S are the two toughest varieties to find in this grade in the entire Peace dollar series.” The “common” variety of the 1928-S (small S) is worth $885 in MS-64 and $24,850 in MS-65.

Another candidate for an upgrade is the 1926, which is worth $112 in MS-64 and $475 in MS-65. Looking at these values, I’m wondering why I bought one in MS-64.

The 1934, which is one of only four dates in the Peace series with a mintage under 1 million pieces (954,057), also looks like an upgrade candidate. Its value is $395 in MS-64 and $725 in MS-65.

The other dates with sub-million mintages are 1927 (848,000), 1927-S (866,000), and the 1928. Of these three, the 1927 increases almost sevenfold between the two grades, from $535 to $3,650, which suggests to me that I should be content with my MS-64 specimen.

At the current time, my set ranks 69th out of 216 sets listed. When I get my 1921 back from PCGS, my set should move up, as most of my coins are in higher grades than coins in sets now ranked above mine. Of course, upgrading several of the pieces should carry me even higher in the ranking.

Do I think that I’ll ever have the best collection of Peace dollars in the PCGS Set Registry? Not really, as I don’t think I would ever be willing to pay the kind of money that Peace dollars in MS-66 and higher command.

Still, I find it fun to play the Set Registry game and that’s what coin collecting should be all about, in my opinion having fun. Are you having fun with your coins? If not, and you haven’t looked into Set Registry, you should give it a try.



More Resources:

• Subscribe to our Coin Price Guide, buy Coin Books & Coin Folders and join the NumisMaster VIP Program

• 2010 U.S. Coin Digest, The Complete Guide to Current Market Values, 8th ed.

• State Quarters Deluxe Folder By Warmans

• Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money, 1928 to Date

• Strike It Rich with Pocket Change, 2nd Edition