Five years ago, Michael Moran, a numismatic author who was then serving on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, told his colleagues on the CCAC that a 2021 Peace silver dollar to mark the centennial of the issuance of the 1921 Peace dollar would be a big hit with collectors.

Thomas Uram, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists who also serves on the CCAC including as chairman of that group in 2020, responded that it was a good idea, and why not also do one for the centennial of the last Morgan silver dollar in 1921?

The two longtime collectors thus began a journey that would take them to the halls of congress repeatedly looking for support for a 2021 program of silver dollars honoring the two most iconic large American silver coins and most widely collected coins of their type.

After an unsuccessful effort to create a commemorative coin program whose surcharges would have gone to the American Numismatic Association and other numismatic groups, the two men tried a different approach in which the coins would be issued as legal tender silver numismatic products similar to the collector versions of the American Silver Eagle.

Their persistence and hard work paid off late last year when the 1921 Silver Dollar Coin Anniversary Act passed the Senate in December after passing the House earlier and was signed into law by then President Trump on January 5.

The coins are finally about to become a reality and should become one of the most popular modern U.S. Mint programs that under the enabling legislation could be continued in future years if the Mint and Treasury department decide to do that.

Coin specs

The 2021 Morgan and Peace dollar coins will be struck on the same size planchets as the original coins but using the .999 fine silver planchets the Mint now uses on all its silver coinage rather than the .900 fine with copper making up the rest. As a result, the net silver weight will be .85 ounces rather than .77 ounces for the original coins.

Those coins – each of which will be struck with an uncirculated finish and cost $85 -- are about to be offered for sale by the U.S. Mint starting in a month in a series of pre-orders running two weeks each.

Each of the six products being offered during this period will have product but not mintage limits, which means that the Mint is keeping the door open to issuing future product offerings such as possibly sets of the coins or Proof versions. Tom and Mike both suggested that the coins not have a mintage limit because of the expected high level of demand for the coins and also recommended issuing special sets with each coin included.

For each 2021 Morgan dollar, the product limit will be 175,000, while for the 2021 Peace dollar the product limit will be 200,000.

Each of the five Morgan dollars and the Peace dollar, which is expected to be struck in high relief, will have a household limit of 10 coins, which was originally set at 25. That led many collectors to contact the Mint to say the limit was too high, and the Mint decided it agreed with collectors that 10 coins per household for each product was more appropriate.

The first two Morgan dollars will be available for pre-sale from noon EST May 24 to 3:00 pm June 7 and will include coins with CC for Carson City and 0 for New Orleans privy marks. The CC privy will be incuse within a cartouche, while the O privy has a dot in the center.

The Mint can’t use actual CC and O mint marks on the coins because those mints no longer exist, and the coins are being struck at the Philadelphia Mint.

Then from June 1 at noon EST through June 14 at 3:00 pm EST the Mint will accept orders for the 2021-D and 2021-S Morgan silver dollars struck respectively at the Denver and San Francisco Mints.

And from June 7 to June 21 at the same starting and ending times as the others, the Mint will offer a 2021 Morgan struck at the Philadelphia Mint with no mint mark as were original Morgan dollars made at that mint plus the 2021 Peace dollar also produced at the same mint.

The Mint plans to ship these coins in October.

History

By 1904 over 560 million Morgan dollars had been struck. Because the coins circulated mainly only in the Western states, there was a surplus of coins sitting in Treasury vaults. Under the 1918 Pittman Act 270 million of the remaining coins were melted to help the British stabilize the value of silver used in their coinage. The act also required that an equal amount of silver be purchased by U.S. mines, which led to the resumption of the Morgan dollar in 1921 after a 15-year hiatus and the striking of 87 million 1921 P, D and S Morgan dollars.

How much are 1921 Morgan and Peace dollars worth?

While 1921 Morgan dollars have long been considered the most common date of the series because so many were made, only a million Peace dollars were struck, making it a very desirable first year coin especially as the only high-relief silver coin issued by the Mint until recently.

Both 1921 silver dollars have seen their values spike recently likely in anticipation of the 2021 coins.

The 1921 coin runs $70 in MS63, $90 in MS64, $200 or less in MS65 and $600 in MS66. Very rare in the top grade of MS67, those coins run $13,000.

The respective values for the 1921-D are $140, $275, $375, $650 and $23,500, while for the 1921-S they are $120, $225, $600 and $2750 (no MS67s exist).

For about $400, one can acquire a nice graded set of the trio in MS64, or a nice ungraded set in average uncirculated for $200.

As for the 1921 Peace dollar a nice circulated example can be had for under $300, while an MS60 is $350, an MS63 $950, an MS64 $1450, MS65 $2600, MS66 $7500 and an elusive MS67 runs a whopping $140,000.

It would not be surprising if these prices continue moving up with the release of the 2021 silver dollars.