While there are many collectors of both Peace and Morgan dollars, collectors sometimes underestimate the rarity of Peace dollars compared to Morgan dollars due to the fact that the Morgan dollars are older than Peace dollars.

Morgan dollars were minted starting in 1878 through 1904 with no morgans after 1904 until 1921. In 1921 both Morgan Dollars and Peace Dollars were minted. The original mintage totals for all mint marks for the 1921 Morgan Dollars exceed 86 Million coins versus the 1921 (initial year high relief) Peace Dollar which had an original mintage of 1,006,473.

Please note, the original mintages for both Morgan dollars and Peace dollars can be misleading, because the Pittman Act of 1918 authorized the melting of approximately 270,000,000 of silver dollars (primarily Morgan dollars at the beginning with Peace dollars being melted in later melts). This from a total of Morgans minted from 1878 to 1904 of approximately 570,272,610. This leaves a total of approximately 300 million of all Morgan Dollar minted from 1878 to 1904 surviving. When considering that in the final year of the Morgan (1921) over 86 million were minted, the Morgan is Far more plentiful than the Peace dollar.

There have been several melts of silver dollars which have greatly reduced the populations of both the Morgan and Peace Dollars. All three major grading services (see my quide All Coin Grading Services are not Equal) also provide the populations of coins they have graded by date and mint mark. The American Numismatic Association at numismatics.org is also a good source for coin information.

When buying Morgans or Peace dollars you should not just consider the rarity based on the original mintage but make reference to population reports that show the quantity of coins for each mint mark that have survived. One estimate is made by Les and Sue Fox in the book "Silver Dollar Fortune Telling".  For example, they estimate that fewer than 50,000 survive of the 1921 (high relief) Peace Dollar from the original mintage and less than 11,000 of the surviving 1921 Peace Dollars are in uncirculated condition. Another example from their book is the 1928 P Peace Dollar which had an original mintage of 360,649 (the lowest original mintage of all the Peace Dollars) but Les and Sue Fox estimates less than 12,000 survive with fewer than 6,000 surviving in uncirculated condition. But even now you can purchase an uncirculated 1928P Peace dollar for from $500.00 to $720.00 through grade #MS63.

While the total original mintage for all peace dollars and mint marks was approximately 183,502,722, there are 3 mint marks out of the total 24 coin series (the 1922P (51 million), the 1923P (30.8million) and the 1924P (19 millions)) that account for over 100 millions coins. That leaves less than 82 million coins in the remaining 21 peace dollar dates/mint marks. Les and Sue Fox estimate that many of these 21 dates have less 10% of total original mintage still surviving and for more than a few dates the survival rates are less than 5% of total original mintage surviving (i.e.1921P, 1927P, 1927D, 1927S, 1928P, & th 1934S). 

A recent PCGS  population report for all Morgan and Peace dollars graded by PCGS shows a total of approximately 1,722,541 Morgan Dollars (non-proofs) in all grades with over 96% of the total coins graded in MS60 or better condition. 

By comparison PCGS has graded only 293,453 Peace dollars in all grades and mint marks and when you eleminate the 1922P, 23P, 24P, and 25P (the highest original mintages) you are left with less than 94,000 coins (in all grades) for the remaining 20 Peace dollar dates/mint marks. Further if you look at all Peace dollars graded by PCGS as MS65 or above, THERE ARE ONLY approximately 11,945 Peace dollars graded as MS65 or above (excluding the four high mintage years).  So for the remaining 20 Peace dates/mint marks there are an AVERAGE OF FEWER THAN 600 peace dollars per date/mint mark that have been graded by PCGS as MS65 or above (excluding the 22, 23, 24, & 25).  In some of the rarer dates, for example the 1927S there are fewer than 100 coins graded MS65 or higher.

I personally believe that Peace dollars continue to be cheap compared to the older Morgan dollars. If you check the listings under Dollars you will see that there are usually four or five times as many Morgans for sale as Peace Dollars, which approximately  mirrors the estimated survival rates of Morgans versus to Peace. While this is partly due to the longer time span that Morgans were minted, I personally believe that there is a greater scarsity of Peace Dollars than Morgans when compared to their original mintages.

Even now you can purchase many peace dollars in the better dates for little more than melt value (peace dollars contain .77344 oz of silver) when considering VF and EF coins. Modern coin dealers speak of the rarity of the 1996 silver eagle but many of the peace dollar dates after 1925 are going for little more than the silver content and the rarity far exceeds the modern eagles, and are FAR, FAR, rarer coins. Most of the Peace Dollar S  (San Fransisco) and D (Denver) have survival rates in MS65 or better of less than 6,000 coins with the majority of these mint marks have fewer than 3,400 surviving in MS65.

BEWARE - BEWARE, PLEASE NOTE, there were NO peace dollars minted in PROOF CONDITION. Virtually all peace dollars that are represented as Prooflike are coins that have been polished or dipped which greatly reduces the value of the coin. BEWARE-BEWARE, while Morgan Dollars do have proof coins, PLEASE NOTE, the raised features of a Morgan Dollar proof (liberty's head and the eagle's breast feathers and wings show a frosty mint finish. So Called Morgan Dollar proofs that have mirror like surfaces on Liberty's head and the eagle's breast feathers have been polished or dipped. DO NOT buy UNGRADED rare dates coins of either the Morgan or Peace dollar series. UNGRADED rare date coins are a sure sign of some problem with the coin.

If you found this guide helpful please click Yes below. See also my other guides including "Certified Coin Scams on e-bay",  "Buying and Selling Coins on e-bay", and "Cleaned Coins on E-bay" thanks peacedollarguy.