The History of United States Coinage As Illustrated by the Garrett Collection

The 1920s

At the 1920 convention of the American Numismatic Association, Farran Zerbe proposed that a commemorative silver dollar be issued to observe peace. This subsequently resulted in production of the Peace dollar in December of the next year.

In July 1920 numismatists were dismayed at a Treasury Department report which noted that 60 million dollars of Confederate paper money had been recently destroyed "to relieve the congested condition of the Treasury vaults." The money had been seized from the Confederate Treasury at Richmond when the Southern capital was captured during the Civil War.

... that he was probably the oldest collector in the United States, and nearly every important sale has contributed to his collection ... My brother and I have been favored with his exclusive business in our line since 1875. He was always alert to improve the condition of his coins, when a finer example was obtainable, the other was discarded, hence the high grade of nearly every coin in the collection.