I have had the 22 Peace Dollar for 3 year.I got as scrape silver but the look of it is like the 1921. Could it be a medium relief ? tell me what your think.
Medium relief ? I know of 1 1922 high relief, but medium relief ? That's a new one on me. It is probably just a well struck example.
Doug In the new coin world 3/9/09, Burdette writes about the transition of the early Peace dollar from the 1921 High profile to the common low relief. He mentions and illustrates with photos a "Medium relief" transition stage. It is as I understand the article a combo of a Lower relief obv and the high relief rev. Jim
Should add, it is dated 1922, and was one of Morgan's attempt to stop die breakage and extend the die life. But it didn't work. Jim
I too have heard of the transitional relief 1922 Peace Dollar dies. I think it was a better version than either the 1921 or the eventual 1922 die. This would have been a good compromise between Morgan and de Francisci.
Just read the article in Coin World. It's really interesting with many photos. Now, to look at all my 1922 Peace dollars. One can hope. Bruce
I agree! There are several diagnostics for the 1922 "High Relief" Reverse but the easiest one to pinpoint is if the Ray extends through and well above the "N" in "ONE". From all of the information that I have seen and read, if the Ray only extends to the top of the "N", then it is a Low Relief Reverse. Frank
That's the easy reverse diagnostic. The easy obv diagnostic is the spike just to the right of the E in LIBERTY. If it is almost even with the top of the bottom leg of the E it's either high or medium rlief. If it extends beyond the bottom leg and almost reaches the middle leg of the E then it is the regular low relief. On the one pictured here it clearly extends well past the bottom bar.
One of the rev diagnostics given in the CW article for the medium relief is that the olive branch is disconected from the eagle. This one is obviously not. And unless I misread the article, the medium relief was a pattern only struck in limited numbers, none were released into circulation.
Typically a pattern was struck for examination and evaluation, in this case probably involving the pressure needed to strike the coin sufficiently for it to be used in production needing only a single strike to produce, and not damage the equipment.
