The Wait Is Almost Over: 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollars to Be Offered Soon – Bullion Shark

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.

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.