The Law That Brought the Morgan and Peace Dollars Back

January 5 • American Coin History Calendar

A century after one legendary American silver dollar gave way to another, Congress authorized both to return. The 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act became law on January 5, 2021, creating modern Morgan and Peace dollars that connected the western silver-boom era, the aftermath of World War I and a new generation of collectors.

Two Silver Dollars, One Extraordinary Year

Few dates connect two major American coin designs as neatly as 1921.

That year marked the final production of the Morgan dollar in its original era and the beginning of the Peace dollar. One design looked back toward the enormous silver production, western expansion and industrial growth of the late nineteenth century. The other was created in the aftermath of World War I and explicitly embraced the idea of peace.

Exactly one hundred years later, the United States decided to bring both designs back.

On January 5, 2021, the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act became Public Law 116-286. The legislation directed the Secretary of the Treasury to issue modern silver dollars recognizing the centennial of the completion of Morgan dollar coinage and the centennial of the beginning of Peace dollar coinage.

It was not simply another retro-themed collector product. Congress built the program around the historical transition that had occurred in 1921.

The Morgan Dollar's First Life

The Morgan dollar originated under very different circumstances.

Congress passed the Bland-Allison Act in 1878, requiring the Treasury to purchase large quantities of silver and convert it into silver dollars. The resulting coin was designed by George T. Morgan, an English-born engraver who had joined the United States Mint and would later become its Chief Engraver.

Morgan's obverse depicts Liberty in profile. Rather than relying solely on an abstract classical face, Morgan worked from a live model, Philadelphia teacher Anna Willess Williams, while creating his interpretation of Liberty. The reverse carries a heraldic eagle surrounded by a wreath.

Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 through 1904 at various U.S. Mint facilities. Production ended when the government's stock of silver purchased under earlier legislation was exhausted.

Then the Morgan dollar unexpectedly returned.

The Pittman Act of 1918 authorized the melting of hundreds of millions of silver dollars. More than 270 million were eventually melted, with much of the resulting bullion sold to Great Britain for use in India during a wartime silver crisis.

The same law required the government to replace the melted dollars by purchasing domestically mined silver and striking new silver dollars.

That obligation brought the Morgan design back into production in 1921 after a 17-year absence. Morgan dollars were made that year at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco. It was the only year the classic Morgan dollar was struck at Denver.

But 1921 was about to become more than the Morgan dollar's comeback year. Before the year ended, an entirely new silver dollar would replace it.

A Dollar to Mark the Peace After World War I

The idea of creating a coin celebrating peace after World War I gained support among numismatists and eventually federal officials. A design competition was held for a new silver dollar, and sculptor Anthony de Francisci won.

His obverse shows Liberty wearing a radiant crown. De Francisci used his wife, Teresa, as the model while creating the portrait. The reverse depicts a bald eagle at rest, clutching an olive branch and facing rays of the rising sun. Beneath the eagle is a single word that gives the coin its identity: PEACE.

Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon approved the design in December 1921. The first Peace dollars were struck before the end of the year, creating one of the most famous transitions in American coinage: Morgan dollars and Peace dollars both dated 1921.

The original 1921 Peace dollar was struck in high relief. That dramatic treatment made the first-year issue visually distinctive but difficult to manufacture efficiently. Beginning in 1922, the relief was reduced for normal mass production.

As the centennial approached, lawmakers and numismatic organizations supported legislation recognizing the 1921 transition.

The bill's own findings treated the two designs as symbols of different periods in American history. The Morgan dollar represented westward expansion and industrial development in the late nineteenth century. The Peace dollar represented the United States emerging as an international power while recognizing the sacrifices of World War I and the peace that followed.

The legislation passed Congress late in 2020 and was signed into law on January 5, 2021.

Its formal title was the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act. The law required $1 silver coins recognizing both centennials and specified a weight of 26.73 grams and a composition of at least 90 percent silver.

The Mint ultimately produced the 2021 coins in .999 fine silver, giving the historic designs a modern precious-metal specification.

Recreating the Morgan Dollar Without Simply Copying It

Reviving a nineteenth-century coin design in the twenty-first century was not as simple as finding an old picture and engraving it again.

The U.S. Mint used historic assets—including original coins, dies and high-resolution imagery—to reconstruct the designs while adapting them to modern production requirements. The goal was to preserve the character of the originals while creating coins that could be manufactured using contemporary technology.

The 2021 Morgan retained George T. Morgan's Liberty portrait and heraldic eagle. The 2021 Peace dollar retained de Francisci's radiant Liberty and eagle with olive branch.

But there were differences. The modern coins were .999 silver rather than the traditional 90-percent-silver, 10-percent-copper alloy. And the 2021 Peace dollar did not reproduce the extreme high relief of the original 1921 issue because the Mint adapted the design to modern commemorative-coin specifications.

The Mint turned the 2021 Morgan dollar into something more ambitious than a single anniversary coin. Five versions were produced to recognize the historic facilities that had struck Morgan dollars.

A Philadelphia version carried no mint mark, following Philadelphia's historic practice. Denver produced a version with a D, and San Francisco produced one with an S.

Two additional Morgan dollars honored mints that no longer produced coins: Carson City and New Orleans.

Those pieces are frequently described casually as “2021-CC” and “2021-O” Morgan dollars, but there is an important distinction. The CC and O on the 2021 coins are privy marks, not mint marks.

The CC and O Coins Were Not Struck in Carson City or New Orleans

The Carson City Mint stopped producing coins in 1893, and the New Orleans Mint's coinage operations ended in 1909. Neither facility could have struck a 2021 Morgan dollar.

Instead, the Philadelphia Mint produced the modern coins honoring those historic facilities. Each carries a raised oval privy mark containing an incuse CC or O, recalling the mint marks seen on original Morgan dollars.

The distinction matters. A mint mark identifies the facility that actually made a coin. A privy mark can commemorate a place, event or other connection without claiming that the coin was manufactured there.

Thus, a 2021 Morgan dollar with the CC privy mark honors Carson City—but it is a Philadelphia-made coin.

Carson City's inclusion was no accident. The Nevada mint is inseparable from the Morgan dollar's identity.

The facility opened in 1870 near the source of one of America's greatest silver discoveries, the Comstock Lode. Carson City struck Morgan dollars from 1878 through 1885 and again from 1889 through 1893.

Original CC Morgan dollars have become some of the most recognizable coins in American collecting. Their association with Nevada silver, the Old West and relatively limited production has given the CC mint mark a mystique far beyond its two tiny letters.

The 2021 CC privy therefore connected the anniversary program directly to the geography and mythology surrounding the original series.

The New Orleans Mint opened in 1838 and produced gold and silver coins for a growing nation. It began striking Morgan dollars in 1879 and produced them through 1904, with interruptions during its complicated nineteenth-century history.

New Orleans Morgan dollars remain a major collecting specialty, and the familiar O mint mark is an important part of the original series.

Like the CC tribute, the 2021 O-privy Morgan was produced at Philadelphia. Its mark commemorated New Orleans rather than identifying the manufacturing facility.

The 2021 Peace Dollar Stayed With Philadelphia

The modern Peace dollar was simpler. The Mint produced one 2021 version at Philadelphia without a mint mark.

That was historically appropriate. Although original Peace dollars were eventually made at Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco, the first Peace dollars of 1921 were struck at Philadelphia.

The anniversary coin therefore returned the design to the city where its story had begun a century earlier.

The 2021 Morgan and Peace dollars generated enormous collector interest. The Mint initially planned multiple preorder windows, with individual Morgan versions limited to 175,000 coins and the Peace dollar limited to 200,000.

Demand was intense enough that the sales process itself became part of the story. Collectors flooded the Mint's website, and ordering difficulties led the Mint to adjust its schedule. Later preorder windows were moved to August.

The original issue price was $85 per coin, and household ordering limits were imposed in an effort to distribute the limited production more broadly.

The frenzy demonstrated that designs created in 1878 and 1921 could still command enormous attention in the digital age.

The 2021 coins were authorized specifically for the centennial, but their success did not end the story. After skipping 2022 because of silver-blank supply problems, the Mint brought Morgan and Peace dollars back in 2023 and turned them into recurring collector products.

The modern program expanded beyond the original 2021 uncirculated issues to include additional finishes and product formats. What began as a one-year centennial tribute effectively created a new chapter for two historic designs.

That outcome is fitting. The original Morgan dollar itself had already experienced one unexpected resurrection in 1921. A century later, it happened again—this time with the Peace dollar beside it.

Why January 5, 2021 Belongs in Coin History

The significance of January 5 is not simply that Congress authorized two collectible silver dollars.

The law deliberately recognized a turning point in American coinage. In 1921, the Morgan dollar completed its original run just as the Peace dollar began. The two designs reflected different visions of the nation: one associated with western silver and nineteenth-century industrial expansion, the other with America's emergence from a world war and hopes for peace.

One hundred years later, Public Law 116-286 reunited them.

The modern coins preserved George T. Morgan's and Anthony de Francisci's designs, revived the famous D and S connections, honored Carson City and New Orleans with carefully distinguished privy marks, and introduced both dollars to collectors who had never held an original example.

January 5, 2021 therefore did something unusual in American numismatics. It did not merely commemorate history—it restarted it.

Interested in this classic American coin? Shop handcrafted Morgan Silver Dollar coin rings from CoinCrafters, made from authentic coinage and finished by hand.

• Morgan and Peace Silver Dollars Return After a One-Year Pause
• Pre-Orders Open for Denver and San Francisco Morgan Dollars
• George T. Morgan Is Born—Designer of America’s Most Famous Silver Dollar
• The $7.3 Million Auction of the Redfield Silver Dollar Hoard