Your Support is Needed to Make the 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollar Commemorative Coins

The year 1921 saw the last Morgan Dollars and the first Peace Dollars. Now, nearly 100 years later, lawmakers are moving to celebrate these two beloved coins with commemoratives issued in 2021. These coins would honor an important time in American history while promoting the coin collecting hobby. Their sale would benefit the 125-year-old American Numismatic Association as well as two museums.

The bipartisan co-sponsors of the “1921 Silver Dollar Commemorative Coin Act,’’ H.R. 3757, need public support to help ensure it is passed. It requires 289 congressional co-sponsors.

The Morgan Dollar, left, was replaced by the Peace Dollar, right, in 1921. Legislation would have commemorative coins struck in 2021. Click images to enlarge.

An initiative to back the legislation is being led by Tom Uram, chairman of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC), president of the Pennsylvania Association of Numismatists and current American Numismatic Association board member; and Mike Moran, noted author and researcher and CCAC member since 2011. The CCAC was established by Congress in 2003 to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on the themes and designs of all US coins and medals.

“It’s critical that hobbyists reach out to their congressional representatives immediately to press them to co-sponsor the bill,” Uram said. “We need the required number of co-sponsors in order for this to become reality.”

To help make 2021 Morgan and Peace Dollars a reality, call, email or write to your congressional representative and tell them to support US Congressional Bill H.R. 3757. To find your US representative and their contact information, click here.

The two silver dollar series marked significant developments in the history of the United States and are among the most popular US coins ever issued.

The Morgan Dollar, named for its designer, George T. Morgan, was minted from 1878 to 1904 and again in 1921. Showing a profile portrait of Lady Liberty on its obverse and a heraldic eagle on its reverse, the coin recognized the country’s westward expansion and its industrial development of the late 19^th century.

The Peace Dollar was designed by Anthony de Francisci with the Goddess of Liberty on the obverse and a bald eagle clutching an olive branch, a symbol of peace, on the reverse. The Peace Dollar was first issued in 1921, the year the US-German peace treaty was ratified by the US Senate, to replace the Morgan Dollar. The coin, which marked not only the end of World War I but America’s emergence as an international power, was issued until 1935.

The “1921 Silver Dollar Commemorative Coin Act,’’ co-sponsored by US Reps. Andy Barr, Republican of Kentucky, and Emanuel Cleaver, Democrat of Missouri, would have the Secretary of the Treasury mint up to 500,000 new Morgan and Peace Dollars in 2021. The bill was introduced July 16.

“These iconic silver dollars, with vastly different representations of Lady Liberty and the American Eagle, reflect a changing of the guard in 1921 in the United States and therefore on the 100th anniversary must be minted again to commemorate this significant evolution of American freedom,” according to the bill.

The coins, according to bill HR 3757, would be representative of either the Morgan Dollar or the Peace Dollar, both in their design and inscriptions. The coins will, just like the originals, weigh 26.73 grams, have a diameter of 1.5 inches and be made of at least 90 percent silver.

The Mint will sell the coins for a sum covering their design, manufacture and shipping and a surcharge of $10 per coin. The legislation specifies that the project should not cost the federal government anything. The proceeds of the $10 surcharge will be divided as follows: 40% to the American Numismatic Association, 40 percent to the National World War I Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri; and 20% to the Nevada State Museum in Carson City. If possible and cost-effective, some of the new dollars will be struck at the Nevada State Museum, which includes the Carson City Mint building. These coins would feature the famous “CC” mintmark.

The money would support the coin and coin collecting educational work of the Colorado Springs, Colorado-based American Numismatic Association; the education and commemoration activities of the National World War I Museum; and the preservation of the Nevada State Museum’s displays relating to the US Mint, the Comstock Lode of Nevada (which was the first major silver ore discovery in the United States) and the American West.

The American Numismatic Association is a congressionally chartered, nonprofit educational organization dedicated to encouraging the study and collection of coins and related items. Numismatic Guaranty Corporation is the official grading service of the association.