Q. David Bowers
I Like MS-63 and MS-64
Among Peace dollars, I like MS-63 and MS-64 as an ideal combination of high grade and excellent valuefor the price paid. As is the case with Morgan dollars,grades of certified coins are apt to vary widely whenactually examined, perhaps even more so than with Morgans. The rules for quality are the same: justify inyour own mind that a coin actually meets the MS-63 or MS-64 qualification (or whatever other grade you select). Avoid stained, deeply tarnished or deeplytoned coins, etc., and concentrate on those that arebrilliant and lustrous or with attractive light toning.
Even among certified coins, avoid weak strikes,coins with excessive die marks (such as die grindingmarks and parallel striations in the fields), coins withwhite stains (particularly common in the Peace dollars of the 1920s), coins with rust marks and yellow stains,etc.
Grading of Peace Dollars
Similarly, while I like the MS-63 and MS-64 grades as a nice combination of high quality and low price, others may opt to buy higher grades such as MS-65. The latter category has many traps, as in my opinion numerous coins certified as MS-65 are very unattractive and really are in lesser grades. Of course, many coins certified as MS-65 are superb.
Cherrypick very carefully and buy only the best.
At conventions, when looking through dealer offerings, and when making other purchases, I cherrypick for my own stock, and I suggest that you do the same. Coins cost more when bought this way, and it is not at all unusual to pay a 10% to 30% premium for something nice. I find that if the "going price" for a given Peace dollar is, say, $500 in MS-64 grade, I might have to pay $550 to $650 for a really choice example, particularly for one that usually comes weakly struck on the reverse or is usually unattractive.
However, a thing of beauty is a joy forever, as they say, whereas an ugly coin is apt to be not only a source of embarrassment, but a coin which will be uncomfortable to own and which will soon be a candidate for replacement-something that is probably more expensive, considering the loss you might take when selling it and then buying a new one, than paying a premium to begin with. In my opinion, quality doesn't cost-it pays. When I was a kid there was a sign above the meat department of the local Acme grocery store, that was attributed to John Ruskin and went something like this: "The bitterness of low quality is remembered longer than the sweetness of low price."
Many Peace silver dollars graded in various Mint State categories have fine hairlines or brush lines on them, as if they had been wiped with a silver polishing cloth. This undesirable feature is not always readily apparent. Bill Fivaz has recommended to classes at the American Numismatic Association Summer Conferences that they take a given coinnot necessarily a Peace dollar, but it works as well with Peace dollars as anything else-and hold it carefully under a pinpoint source of light, rotating it so that reflection occurs from all angles. If wear or hairlines are apparent, they will undoubtedly become visible during this process. It is important to do this, for if you hold a coin at just a single angle to the light and don't rotate it, hairlines going in a single direction might not be noticed.
I recall a few years ago being offered an old-time dealer's stock of Uncirculated Peace dollars. At first glance they were all choice Uncirculated pieces, but upon careful observation all had many minute hairlines from wiping or brushing. I figured that I could sell them as MS-60 or MS-61 at best, and lost the deal to someone else to whom the hairlines were not as important (or perhaps he didn't notice them).
Further, Alan Herbert, technical columnist for Numismatic News, comments as follows: "Doctored coins hide the hairlines, mandating examination under a 20x to 40x stereo microscope to detect them."!
I do not mean to be overly technical here, but if you are paying a good price for a high-grade Peace dollar, it will pay to check it carefully. Buying PCGS or NCG certified Peace dollars helps a lot, especially in the avoidance of doctored coins. However, you are still on your own when it comes to selecting pieces of high aesthetic quality.
Contact Marks on Peace Dollars
Many Peace silver dollars, even high-grade Mint State coins, show contact marks on the reverse on the higher relief parts of the eagle. Such contact marks are often numerous even when there are few if any marks in the fields or elsewhere on the coin.
It could be the case that bagmarks now seen on Peace dollars occurred only on the eagle, but riot, for example, in the obverse or reverse fields. The explanation is that the marks were on the original planchet used to make the coin, and as the higher areas of the eagle did not strike up fully, the original planchet contact marks remained intact-and were visible as "bagmarks" on the finished coin, even though the finished coin may not have come into contact with others after it was made. This situation, also seen elsewhere in numismatics (on the skirt of Miss Liberty on certain Liberty Walking half dollars, on the centers of Carver-Washington commemorative half dollars, etc.), has been overlooked by most writers and researchers.
This matter was discussed in relation to a 1924-S Peace dollar in Rare Coin Review No. 86, published by Bowers and Merena Galleries. This elicited the following letter from Bill Fivaz:
I just received your Rare Coin Review and thought I might comment on the letter in the Question and Answer Forum from "A.B." on pages 27-28, especially the portion involving the marks on the reverse of his 1924-S Peace dollar.
In my opinion, your explanation as to why the marks occurred in the center of the eagle is 100% accurate. We point this out to our Grading Course students each summer at the American Numismatic Association Seminar and ask them to closely examine those marks, under a stereoscope if possible, to see that the edges of those marks are rather rounded, not sharp as would be the case if they were contact marks. The strike obliterates most of the planchet abrasions (as I prefer to call them), but those that are deep enough to remain, primarily where the deepest area of the die(s) strike, are not eliminated and present themselves precisely as you have said.
We also point out to the Seminar students that the marks that were on the planchet prior to striking and which were not obliterated at the time of strike also have the original planchet frost on them. They are not shiny as if they have been hit by another (metal) coin. This seems to get the point across fairly well to most folks, and I thought I'd mention it for clarification.
I just thought the extra comment on the "rounded edges" of the marks from the strike might make it a bit easier to understand for "A.B."
On a different subject, that of contact marks acquired after a Peace dollar was struck, I believe the following:
As you probably know, contact marks on Peace dollars seem to occur with more frequency on the reverse than on the usually affected side of a portrait coin, the obverse. . . . I have a theory on this.
The Buffalo 5c, Mercury 10c and Peace $1 all had the reverse die as the upper or hammer die. This can be proven by examining broads truck specimens of these three types where a partial collar is present. On these three the flange is just the opposite of what it would normally be had the obverse die been the hammer die. This being the case, my theory is that when the struck coins came off the dies, down the chute and into the collection hopper, most fell reverse side up~ Following coins falling on top of them had a better change to nick and mark the reverse as that was the exposed side of the coins in the bin. It's just a theory, but one that makes some sense, I believe.