Q. David Bowers
Mint Report
The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1922. told of continuing silver dollar coinage under the Pittman Act:
"Over 92 million silver dollars were coined during the year from bullion purchased under the terms of the Pittman Act, practically all of these dollars going into storage and being represented in circulation by silver certificates issued against them in lieu of Federal Reserve bank notes retired. Retirement of the Federal Reserve bank notes permits retirement of certificates of indebtedness held as security against them, thus reducing the public debt and the interest thereon.
"Of coins below the dollar but few were executed during the past year, those struck being confined to memorial [commemorative] half dollars and a small number of nickel and bronze coins for cleaning up partially completed lots. Approximately 12 million pieces of coin were executed for foreign governments, making the year's aggregate number of pieces executed by the three mints 117,912,205. Working periods of 16 hours and 24 hours per day were again a feature of the year's operations, incident to the effort to reduce quickly the 'dead' stock of Pittman Act silver bullion to an active asset in the form of silver dollars, against which silver certificates could be issued. Silver bullion can not be circulated as cash, nor is it available as a reserve against liabilities or paper currency. While operating on a 24-hour basis the average output reached one million silver dollar coins per day-500,000 at the Philadelphia Mint, 280,000 at San Francisco and 220,000 at Denver ....
"Silver purchased under the terms of the Pittman Act, delivered to mint institutions, totaled to June 30, 1922, 117,512,000 ounces, leaving approximately 91,500,000 ounces yet to be acquired; 86,916,979 ounces have been coined into 111,431,473 standard silver dollars, of which 86,730,000 are of the old [Morgan] design.
"Purchases under the Pittman Act during the two years since they were begun in May 1920, have totaled somewhat more than the quantity of silver produced from domestic mines during the same period. This is due to the working up of considerable stocks of crude domestic material shown by sworn reports of reduction concerns to have been on hand what the time purchases were commenced. The New York price of silver which does not meet Pittman Act requirements averaged during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1922, $0.66821; the lowest New York price was at the opening of the fiscal year, 59-1/8 cents; the highest May 22,74-3/16 cents."
The same issue of the Annual Report of the Director of the Mint, 1922, told of the new design:
"The 'Peace dollar' takes the place of the old design of the standard silver dollar, which was first issued in 1878. This coin commemorates the declaration of peace between the United States, Germany, and Austria, exchanges of peace treaty ratifications having been made in Berlin on November 11, 1921, and in Vienna on November 8, 1921, and peace having been proclaimed by the President of the United States on November 14 and 17, 1921, respectively. No special congressional authority was required for the change in design of the silver dollar, since the law permits changing the design of any of our coins not more frequently than once in 25 years. The design of the 'Peace dollar' was selected by the Fine Arts Commission from models submitted by a number of prominent sculptors, and is the work of Anthony de Francisci.
"On the obverse is a female head emblematic of Liberty, wearing a tiara of light rays, and the word 'Liberty'; on the reverse is an eagle perched on a mountain top, holding in its talons an olivebranch, witnessing the dawn of a new day; the word 'Peace' also appears. Other mottoes and inscriptions are as required by the coinage laws. The design for the silver 'Peace dollar' was approved in December 1921, and 1,006,473 pieces were executed by the close of the calendar year. Subsequent coins of this design will bear the year in which made. At the close of the fiscal year on June 30, 1922, a total of 24,701,473 of the new design coins had been struck."