Item of the Week: Low Mintage Makes 1928 Dollar a Tough Find
With a mintage under 400,000, the 1928 Peace dollar stands as the series’ lowest-production issue—though its true scarcity comes with the complexities of silver dollar history.
You would get a lot of blank stares if you asked what the key date Peace dollar is. It should not be a difficult question. Yet it is much easier to name the key date Lincoln cent, Jefferson nickel, or Mercury dime.
There is actually a certain amount of reason to be confused when it comes to Peace dollars. Were it a cent or dime, we could take the 360,649-piece mintage of the 1928 Peace dollar and suggest that it is the key date Peace dollar. Moreover, we would have a pretty solid idea as to what sort of numbers from that original mintage would survive to the present day and in what grades. But the 1928 Peace dollar is a silver dollar, and where U.S. silver dollars are concerned, normal standards and assumptions do not always apply.
Bust dollars were heavily exported and circulated infrequently at best. Seated Liberty dollars were exported and melted domestically as well, yet some, despite low mintages, were never even released, as original bags were still found in Treasury vaults in the 1960s.
Many know the Trade dollar was perhaps the most vulnerable dollar when it came to unusual forces. They were exported in heavy numbers, as that was the purpose behind their production. They also circulated and caused significant problems, so many were also melted. Their track record was so bad that it probably helped to sour many Americans on the idea of using silver dollars and encouraged the increase in popularity of bank notes. Morgan dollars had enormous production levels and modest levels of use. Hundreds of millions sat in Treasury vaults, and in times of stress, hundreds of millions were melted. Others, however, simply sat waiting for a demand which came half a century too late.
No government clerks kept records of what dates were being melted and what dates were being sent to banks for use.
The Peace dollar followed the Morgan, and while the Peace dollar probably had a less confusing history than the Morgan, Trade, or any other dollar, confusion is still logical. After all, there was no particularly pressing need to even produce Peace dollars. They were made simply to replace melted Morgans, but there was still no shortage of silver dollars. In fact, there were Seated Liberty and Morgan dollars in the vaults, so Peace dollars were basically produced to keep the others company.
We have, however, learned that Peace dollar scarcity does basically follow the mintages, and in a silver dollar, that is something worth noting. There are exceptions. The 1927-S is not quite as tough to find as its mintage under one million pieces might suggest. The 1921, on the other hand, with a mintage just over one million and a place in the minds of many as a one-year-type coin, is a bit tougher than its mintage would suggest. The 1921 is tough, but not as tough as the 1928.
The 1928 is a really tough date in all grades up to MS-64. It is not always the key date in each grade, but you can expect to pay a premium for it, especially in lower grades. That is certainly fair, due to its mintage of under 400,000. The Peace dollar, except for the dates in the early 1920s, was not heavily produced, and the 1928 is solidly the lowest mintage. In top grades, however, the 1928 is available and not the key Peace dollar.
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