US Silver Peace Dollar

The biggest hurdle faced by proponents of the new coin was that no dollar coin had been minted for general circulation in the United States since 1904, the last year of the Morgan Dollar series. The demand for silver dollars was so low that vast quantities of Morgans were still sitting in bank vaults. That hurdle was overcome with the passage of the Pittman Act on April 23, 1918. Sponsored by Nevada Senator Key Pittman, the Pittman Act allowed the US government to melt as many as 350 million silver dollars, and then either sell the bullion or use it to produce subsidiary silver coinage. Additionally, the law required the government to mint replacement dollars for any that were melted, with domestically purchased silver.

Since the Act required the minting of new silver dollars, and since no new designs had been accepted, on May 9, 1921, the US Mint resumed production of the Morgan Dollar after an 17 year respite. More than 86 million Morgan Dollars were struck during that year, by far the single highest mintage in the coin's history. The same day that mintage of the Morgan resumed, legislation was introduced in the US Congress that called for the issuance a new silver dollar to commemorate the post-World War I peace. The measure did not come to a vote, but one was not needed. Since the Morgan had been in production (during its original run) for more than 25 years, alteration of the design no longer required legislative approval.

Key dates for the U.S. Silver Peace dollar series include the 1927 P; 1927 S; 1928 P; 1934 P.

The market price of silver on the precious metals market affects the value of common date silver dollar coins. Spot price of silver listed is based on the previous business day market close.

Spot Price of Silver as of 02/15/2012
$33.45 troy ounce

Information provided by: Silver Dollar Coin Sale