FEBRUARY 13
1922•Peace Dollar — Low Relief Production at San Francisco
1866•Clay County Savings Association Robbery
1870•Carson City Liberty Head Gold ($5 / $10 / $20)
San Francisco Begins Striking the Redesigned Low-Relief Peace Dollar
On February 13, 1922, the San Francisco Mint began striking Peace dollars with the redesigned low-relief format that would define the series for the rest of its original run. The change solved a serious production problem: Anthony de Francisci's beautiful 1921 high-relief design required tremendous striking pressure and could not be manufactured efficiently in the enormous quantities demanded by federal silver-purchase law. The 1922 redesign transformed the Peace dollar from a dramatic commemorative-style debut into a practical mass-produced American silver dollar.
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The Peace dollar was born in high relief.
It could not stay that way.
When the new silver dollar appeared at the end of 1921, its sculptural portrait of Liberty and its eagle perched above the word PEACE created one of the most dramatic designs in United States coinage.
But beauty came with a price.
The relief was too high for efficient mass production.
The United States Mint needed to strike tens of millions of silver dollars in 1922. The 1921 method was too slow, too hard on dies and too difficult to strike consistently.
Within weeks, Mint officials redesigned the coin.
On February 13, 1922, the San Francisco Mint began producing the new low-relief Peace dollar.
The version born from that redesign would become the Peace dollar most Americans and collectors know today.
A Dollar Created After World War I
The Peace dollar emerged from the aftermath of the First World War.
Numismatists and civic leaders promoted the idea of a coin celebrating the restoration of peace.
Congress did not need to authorize a new silver-dollar type because existing law already permitted the Treasury to change a coin design after it had been in use for twenty-five years.
The Morgan dollar, introduced in 1878, had long passed that threshold.
In 1921, the United States Commission of Fine Arts organized a competition for a new design.
Eight sculptors were invited.
The winner was a young Italian-born American artist named Anthony de Francisci.
Anthony de Francisci's Liberty
De Francisci created a modernized Liberty unlike the formal classical figures found on many earlier coins.
Her hair streams backward as if caught by wind.
A radiate crown rises behind her head.
The word LIBERTY arcs above.
The motto IN GOD WE TRUST crosses the field.
The date appears below.
For the model, de Francisci drew inspiration from his wife, Teresa.
The portrait was not intended as a literal portrait of Teresa de Francisci, but her features and posing helped the sculptor create the youthful face that became Liberty.
The reverse shows a bald eagle perched on a mountaintop.
Sun rays rise behind it.
Below the bird appears a single powerful word:
PEACE
The eagle holds an olive branch.
Unlike many American eagle designs, it does not clutch arrows.
The symbolism is intentional.
This is not an eagle prepared simultaneously for peace and war.
It is an eagle at rest, facing a new dawn.
De Francisci's original reverse concept included a broken sword as another symbol of the end of war.
When the design became public, criticism erupted.
Some observers interpreted a broken sword not as peace but as defeat or surrender.
The United States had emerged victorious from World War I, and the symbolism was politically unacceptable.
Chief Engraver George T. Morgan removed the sword from the working design.
The episode became one of the most famous last-minute changes in American coin history.
The first Peace dollars were struck in late December 1921.
They were produced in high relief, emphasizing the sculptural character of de Francisci's models.
The result was visually impressive.
But high relief creates a mechanical challenge.
A coin press must force metal into the deepest recesses of the dies. The greater the relief, the more pressure and metal movement are required.
When millions of coins must be produced quickly, those demands become expensive and disruptive.
The Pittman Act Creates Enormous Pressure
The Mint was not free to produce Peace dollars slowly.
The Pittman Act of 1918 had authorized the melting of hundreds of millions of older silver dollars, with the silver sold largely for wartime purposes.
The law also required replacement silver to be purchased from domestic mines and coined into new dollars.
That obligation drove the huge Morgan-dollar production of 1921 and continued into Peace-dollar production.
The Mint therefore faced a simple reality in early 1922:
The new dollar had to be manufacturable by the tens of millions.
The 1921 Peace dollar had already demonstrated the problem.
More than one strike could be necessary to bring up the design fully, and high striking pressure shortened die life.
Those conditions were acceptable for medals and limited special issues.
They were not acceptable for an enormous federal coinage program.
Mint officials began experimenting almost immediately with ways to reduce the relief.
The transition was not as simple as flipping a switch from “high” to “low.”
Early 1922 produced a fascinating series of experiments.
Dies were modified.
Relief levels were adjusted.
Trial strikes were made at Philadelphia.
Some 1922 dollars were struck with a higher-relief form before the Mint settled on the production design.
Most of those experimental pieces were destroyed.
A tiny number of surviving 1922 high-relief and experimental Peace dollars are now major numismatic rarities.
Although Anthony de Francisci remained the designer of the Peace dollar, Chief Engraver George T. Morgan played a crucial role in adapting it for production.
Morgan understood the mechanical realities of mass coinage.
He had designed the Morgan dollar more than four decades earlier and had spent his career inside the Mint's engraving department.
In early 1922, he reduced and modified the relief so the design could strike more reliably with one blow from a production press.
The result sacrificed some of the sculptural drama of the 1921 issue but made mass production possible.
Before branch mints began full production, Philadelphia tested the redesigned dies.
Research based on Mint records indicates that experimental and limited production runs took place in early February.
Raymond T. Baker, Director of the Mint, examined examples.
By February 9, reports indicated that full production of the revised dollar was expected shortly.
The tests showed that the low-relief design could meet the Mint's production needs.
February 13, 1922: San Francisco Begins
On February 13, San Francisco began striking its first Peace dollars using the redesigned low-relief format.
This was a crucial step.
The Peace dollar was no longer an experimental new design confined to Philadelphia.
It had become a branch-mint production coin.
San Francisco's pieces carried a small S mintmark on the reverse, near the eagle's tail.
The 1922-S Peace dollar would ultimately have a mintage of 17,475,000 pieces.
Denver soon joined the program.
The Denver Mint began low-relief Peace dollar production on February 21.
Philadelphia moved into full regular production shortly afterward.
By the end of the year, the three mints had produced more than 84 million Peace dollars.
That staggering total explains why the low-relief redesign mattered.
The Mint could never have met that production demand efficiently using the original 1921 high-relief format.
No year better demonstrates the difference between the 1921 and 1922 Peace dollars.
The 1921 coin is remembered as the high-relief first-year issue.
The 1922 coin is the mass-produced workhorse.
Philadelphia alone struck more than 51 million Peace dollars in 1922.
Denver added more than 15 million.
San Francisco contributed more than 17 million.
The Peace dollar had moved from artistic debut to industrial-scale coinage.
Collectors frequently notice that 1922-S Peace dollars can have weak central details.
This is particularly visible in Liberty's hair and in portions of the eagle.
The low-relief redesign made the coin easier to manufacture, but striking quality still varied by mint, die state and press setup.
San Francisco Peace dollars from several years are known for softer strikes than collectors might prefer.
That means a sharply struck 1922-S can be considerably more appealing than an average example even when both receive similar numerical grades.
The Low Relief Changed the Coin's Personality
Place a 1921 Peace dollar beside a normal 1922 and the difference is immediately visible.
The 1921 has a deeper, more medallic quality.
Liberty's portrait rises more strongly from the field.
The eagle and surrounding elements have greater sculptural depth.
The 1922 design appears flatter.
But the comparison is not simply “beautiful versus inferior.”
The two coins were solving different problems.
The 1921 dollar showcased an artistic vision.
The 1922 dollar had to survive industrial production on a massive scale.
The Peace dollar redesign is an excellent reminder that coin design is constrained by machinery.
A sculptor can create almost any depth in clay or plaster.
A circulating coin must be struck quickly between steel dies, released from those dies cleanly, survive handling and stack properly.
Dies must last long enough to make production economical.
Relief cannot be considered separately from metal flow and press pressure.
The February 1922 transition is where artistic design met industrial reality.
The Mint's experiments created some of the most intriguing coins in the Peace dollar series.
Before the final low-relief design was adopted, a limited number of 1922 high-relief dollars were struck.
Most were melted.
A few special or experimental pieces survived.
They include extremely rare proof or trial variants and at least one circulated high-relief example that escaped destruction.
These coins allow specialists to reconstruct the design evolution that took place during those frantic weeks.
Mint Director Raymond T. Baker played a central administrative role in the transition.
Examples of experimental Peace dollars were sent for his inspection.
Coins associated with Baker later became important evidence for researchers studying the sequence of hubs and dies used during the redesign.
Stack's Bowers, drawing on Roger Burdette's Mint-record research, has documented surviving pieces from the Baker estate and connected them to the early February trial production.
These artifacts help move the story beyond later recollection and into the physical record of the redesign itself.
The exact daily chronology of early 1922 Peace dollar production is unusually specialized.
Modern summaries commonly state that San Francisco began low-relief production on February 13.
Research based on Mint records also documents production activity of approximately 100,000 dollars per day on February 13 and 14 during the transition period.
The evidence supports February 13 as the key date when the redesigned dollar moved decisively into large-scale production.
That is why the date deserves a place in a daily coin-history calendar.
James Earle Fraser Objected
The Commission of Fine Arts remained involved in reviewing the revised design.
Sculptor James Earle Fraser, a member of the Commission and designer of the Buffalo nickel, was not enthusiastic about the reduction in relief.
On February 14, Fraser communicated acceptance of the revised dollar while making clear that the acceptance was under protest.
The disagreement reflects a recurring tension in coinage.
Artists and art advisers wanted to preserve the strength of the original sculpture.
Mint officials needed a coin that could actually be produced.
Production won.
Once the low-relief version entered full production, it became the standard form of the Peace dollar.
The denomination continued through 1928, returned briefly in 1934 and 1935, and was revived in modern collector form beginning in 2021.
There were later minor hub and lettering changes, but the fundamental low-relief character established in 1922 remained.
For most collectors, a normal Peace dollar means the design solution created during this transition.
The government produced huge quantities of silver dollars even though many Americans preferred paper money.
Silver dollars circulated more heavily in parts of the West, but enormous numbers remained in Treasury and bank vaults.
They were stored in cloth bags, often for decades.
This history explains why Peace dollars can be common in Mint State despite being a century old.
It also explains the heavy bag marks found on many otherwise uncirculated pieces.
A coin did not need to circulate in a pocket to become battered.
Years of contact with other heavy silver dollars inside bags could do the job.
The 1922-S is not a rare Peace dollar in ordinary circulated grades.
Its mintage was far too large for that.
But condition matters.
Many surviving Mint State pieces show weak strikes, numerous marks or mediocre luster.
As grade and eye appeal increase, the issue becomes much more challenging.
Collectors therefore learn an important lesson from the 1922-S: a high original mintage does not mean every quality level is equally available.
The Peace Dollar's Second Life
The design disappeared from active coinage after 1935.
In 1965, the Denver Mint struck more than 300,000 Peace dollars dated 1964 as part of an attempted revival, but the entire issue was ordered destroyed and none is officially known to survive.
Decades later, Congress authorized modern Morgan and Peace dollars for the 2021 centennial.
The Peace dollar returned again as a collector coin.
That modern revival reflects the enduring popularity of de Francisci's design.
The original 1921 high-relief Peace dollar remains especially admired because it preserves de Francisci's design in its most sculptural circulation-strike form.
Modern collectors often view the high relief as the artistic ideal and the low relief as the practical version.
But without the 1922 redesign, the Peace dollar might never have become the great mass-produced series Americans recognize.
The flatter coin ensured the design could move from art competition to national coinage.
February 13, 1922 marks a manufacturing turning point.
The Peace dollar had survived its difficult debut.
Mint engineers and engravers had reworked it.
Philadelphia trials had shown the new format could function.
San Francisco then began producing the redesigned coin for the western economy.
Within days Denver and Philadelphia would join in.
By year's end, more than 84 million Peace dollars would exist.
The story of the low-relief Peace dollar is not a story of the Mint abandoning art.
It is a story of adapting art to machinery.
Anthony de Francisci's Liberty remained.
The eagle remained.
The rising sun remained.
The word PEACE remained.
What changed was depth.
That seemingly technical adjustment determined whether the design could be struck by the millions.
On February 13, 1922, the San Francisco Mint began striking the redesigned low-relief Peace dollar, helping transform a beautiful but difficult high-relief coin into one of the great mass-produced silver dollars of the twentieth century.
ALSO ON THIS DAY
1866 — Clay County Savings Association Robbery — Liberty, Missouri bank robbed of nearly $60,000 in bonds, paper money, and gold and silver coin; James brothers long associated but participation not proven
1870 — Carson City Liberty Head Gold ($5 / $10 / $20) — Carson City Mint began striking its three gold denominations