By CoinWeek ….
On Sunday, May 10, bidding ends at GreatCollections.com for this 1928-S Peace silver dollar graded MS-65 by PCGS in a gold shield holder and approved by CAC.
It’s hard not to notice the mintage of 1,632,000 Peace dollars struck at the San Francisco Mint in 1928. But like many coins popular with collectors, the date is much, much rarer in Gem grades. Of the Peace dollars, only the 1925-S supercedes the 1928-S in high-grade rarity.
PCGS has graded 64 coins at the MS-65 level, with only five higher–four at 65+ and one at 66. A look at the last few years of auction records shows a lot of activity, with the most recent sale in January of this year garnering $9,600 USD. In July and February of 2019, two examples sold for $16,250 and $16,800, respectively, while another specimen went for only $8,813 in May of that year. But in 2018, a 1928-S Peace dollar in PCGS MS-65 earned $28,800 in August, and a piece sold for $21,738 in May. Prices for the five years prior to that tend to hover around the $15,000-17,000 range.
CAC approval, naturally, will only increase the value of the current example, as it has been deemed strong for the grade. The record price for a 1928-S graded by PCGS happens to be for a MS-65+, which went for $55,813 in March 2019.
At the time of writing, the starting bid for this PCGS MS-65 CAC 1928-S Peace dollar is $12,000.
If you want to check out GreatCollections for more information about prior sales, be sure to check out the GreatCollections Auction Archives, with records for over 600,000 certified coins the company has sold over the past seven years.
Series Collectibility and the Market
Demand for the Peace dollar has been high for many years. Along with the Morgan dollar, it is one of the most popular series of United States coinage to collect. However, the Peace dollar is a shorter and more affordable series to complete than the Morgan series.
Running from 1921-28 and 1934-35 (skipping over the worst of the Great Depression), the entire series includes only 25 dates and major varieties – though the 1921 and 1922 High-Relief Peace dollars will present some difficulty. And once a collector is ready to upgrade their coins or move deeper into the series, a few recognized Prooflike issues and a number of VAM varieties can provide that extra challenge.
But if you’re looking for gem-quality coins and beyond, the Peace dollar series reveals itself to be a serious challenge.
A complete collection of Peace dollars in MS-65 has a market value today of about $79,250, while a set in MS-66 (with a 1925-S in MS-65; see above) costs approximately $250,000 (keep in mind that these prices are for sight-unseen coins certified by either PCGS or NGC; premium quality coins, including coins with high eye appeal, pristine surfaces, and CAC-approval, may cost multiples of these amounts).
The Peace Dollar – A “Classic” Modern
Beyond being one of America’s classic silver dollar types, the Peace dollar served as a circulating commemorative marking the end of hostilities in the First World War. Both politicians and numismatists advocated for a business strike coin to honor both the Allied victory in the “Great War” and the restoration of peace on the world stage–not to mention the return of a silver dollar to American pockets. Many stories have been told about the infamous numismatist Farran Zerbe and his lobbying efforts on behalf of the Peace dollar, but according to some experts, it isn’t certain that he had any real involvement.
Of course, one important aspect of the Peace dollar’s popularity is Anthony de Francisci’s classic design. Sometimes referred to as the “flapper” dollar, the obverse features a modern-looking Lady Liberty–using de Francisci’s wife Teresa as a model–that contrasts greatly with the previous Morgan dollar Liberty. The reverse features an eagle perched on a rock observing a brightly shining sunrise. It holds an olive branch in its talons and has its wings down, symbolizing the end of the war effort and the welcome beginning of peace. The reverse is yet another entry in the line of great early 20th-century eagles on American coinage.
The edge of the Peace dollar is reeded.
