One would imagine that the price drop off would be greater on high relief coins as you go lower on grade (compared to regular strike) but I have noticed that doesn't seem to be the case. One would think wear would annihilate the high relief. For instance, this 1921 High Relief Peace Dollar is graded high relief but wouldn't it technically have lost most (or all) of its high relief at this grade (VF25)?
High relief coins will certainly wear down much easier than a coin in regular relief especially if circulated. However, no matter how worn they get it's not going to change the fact the coin was struck in high relief originally and thus the designation 'high relief'.
I was thinking that would be the main reason for retaining value in low grades. Are there any other reasons for the lack of a cliff like drop off in value like you seem to get with other coins? Does the coin display any markers in the low relief areas (even when very worn) that are different than regular strike coins? In other words if you took a well worn high relief coin and looked at it (without knowing it was once high relief) could you tell it once was? I'm guessing there are other diagnostics since graders know.
Well for that coin in general the first year issue 1921 was issued in high relief only so if it's a 1921 no matter how worn it was a high relief issue. There are a few characteristics in the design that can be used to identify the coin even when worn though. There is some 1922 high relief Peace dollars and matte proofs and they do have diagnostic characteristics to identify them. http://www.usacoinbook.com/coins/3305/dollars/peace/1922-P/high-relief/ edited
This is from a PCGS web page about the 21 High Relief Peace Dollar: Circulated grades: A number of authorities have considered the 1921 in worn grades to be among the top three or four rarest coins in the Peace series. For example, Anthony Swiatek, writing in the Highfill Encyclopedia, considered it in circulated condition to be the fourth rarest coin of the design. http://www.pcgs.com/books/silver-dollars/Chapter18Listings-001.aspx edited - copyright
