I was watching Pawn Stars and this guy walks in with a 1922 High Relief Peace Dollar... that he supposedly won at a poker game... lol. Anyway, whether it was scripted or not, Rick says there are only 10-12 known to be in existence?? I bet some others are in circulation somewhere even though most were melted down. Video is below and it's the first segment (not my video, just found on the Tube). However, I didn't understand the part about the NGC guy explaining why the switch was made from high relief to low relief... they couldn't apply enough pressure? Then how were they able to do that in 1921? Was it due to excessive die wear and replacement, which was not economical?
Dead on the 1921 High reliefs didn't start being made until the end of 1921. In 1922 the mint resumed making 1922 high relief Peace Dollars. However since banks and other store were complaining about the Peace Dollars not stacking properly many were melted down. Today only a few remain. Hope this answers your question.
Oh that makes sense. Couldn't they have just made the background/base lower, then everything moves down a little, while keeping the rim and high relief heights unchanged? Although, I guess you may lose out on overall weight and thus the standard silver content, and the compromise would not bode well at all back when the dollar was pegged to gold.
Pawn Stars is going to be at the NGC booth at FUN next week trying to get fresh material and collectors for their shows, it should be a huge draw.
cool. I did not know about the high relief. thanks for posting this. I had no idea they were worth that much.
I don't know if it is off-topic or not, but... It is possible to see the coin number in video. If I checked the coin on NGC page, then the info is Date/Info: 1922 HIGH RELIEF Denomination: S$1 Grade: DELETED What does it mean, that the grade is deleted?
Maybe it was regraded and put in a new slab, so there's maybe a new certification number? If so, since Rick has connections to NGC, they could have looked at the coin and given it a higher grade, so it would sell for more. Just a guess though.
Stacking and die damaging killed high relief Peace Dollars. Mint die braking was very bad for cost so was redesigned to reduce breakage. 15 - 20 1922 High Relief known is what I last seen in a Coin World article. 2013 2014. Grade Peace Dollars was name of article.
Have you looked at the 1921's? They weren't able to get them to strike up fully either. A fully struck 1921 is a rarity. Usually the central portions are weak with little detail. The coin was sent back in for regrading. It is still graded PF-61 but now has a new certificate number and a custom Pawn Stars label. I believe it is up for auction with Heritage at the FUN show. Since it was sent for regrading the old number is no longer valid so they deleted the information.
It looks like they did keep the same grade! http://coins.ha.com/itm/1922-1-high-relief-matte-pr61-ngc/a/1216-4211.s From what I've seen, the reverse designs' words on the uncirculated 1921's look to be relatively higher relief than on the 1922s. I didn't know there were higher high relief 1921s, too!
