Does anyone here have a picture example of the reverse of a 1922-P Peace dollar business strike coin with a very high relief (either their own or from somewhere else)? I'm wondering how high a relief they were for the earliest strikes, as from what I've seen and read, most of the 1922 Peace dollars have a weak(er) strike, most notably on the reverse's letter devices. Of course, the matte proof example shows an extremely high relief, and even the low relief matte proof looks stronger than the business strikes. How high a relief can a 1922-P Peace dollar's reverse go? Is there one that comes close to or matches other years' business strike examples? Is the "medium relief" one the best it can go (image below)? Thanks in advance!
There's a *big* difference between "relief" and strike quality. Relief is simply how you design the die, and strike quality is a function of how hard you hit with that die. Business Strike 1922's all have the same relief, and only vary in strike strength. That's why 1921's are all High Relief, even though some can have execrable strikes. A fully-struck 1922 (or any Peace Dollar for that matter) is a desirable coin.
Yes, thanks for that correction. The "medium relief" is one of the die variations - that image was added afterwards and out of thought lol. Are there any normal relief Peace dollars that match or come close to the medium relief version?
Personally I still can't tell the High and Medium relief coins apart, but I can tell them easily from the low relief because there are differences in the design. The coin image you posted is definitely NOT a low relief.
This is one of several threads several years ago, you can follow the thread from some of the other posts. Use SEARCH for things like this. https://www.cointalk.com/threads/1922-peace-dollar-high-relief-and-low-relief-confused.46564/
PCGS has a single Business Strike example of what I *think* you're calling "Medium Relief," the production trial pieces designated Pattern J-2020. According to US Patterns, NGC has two which may or may not have originated as Proofs, an AU (the one you pictured above, right?) and a 64. I completely discounted that and the deliberate High Relief Matte and Satin Proof strikes (J-2018 & 2019) in my answer, as we're not exactly going to find them in circulation. Either way, the short ray at the N in ONE should be an easy tell. All the "interesting" ones should be significantly longer than the ray of the final reverse(s) (B1 & B2), which is essentially flush with the top of the N.
That short ray is a good tell - thanks, I'll look for that next time. There are so many varieties of Peace Dollars that I'm going to have to go back and forth to references. I haven't memorized them, as I usually like to collect one or two of the same design type. I believe NGC called it a "medium relief", but there are so many different varieties that there may be other ones such as the one J-2020 that you're referring to. EDIT: Actually here's the site where that image is from, which NGC designates as a "medium relief". https://www.ngccoin.com/coin-varieties/peace-dollar-die-varieties/1922-medium-relief-s1-4477/
Well, they minted 3200 of them and....supposedly....melted all but a couple. Beyond the one with "3200" scratched into it, I guess no others are "supposed" to exist. "Supposed."
