Q. David Bowers
"In a letter written to the secretary of the Commission of Fine Arts, de Francisci controlled his temper as he stated, ' ... I would suggest and with emphasis, that if possible, to forbid the Mint engravers from touching in anyway the dies or hubs of said coins. A letter from Mr. Morgan which I enclose herewith states his intentions to do more changes small in mechanical gain but very damaging to artistic values. That is regrettable because unnecessary. The Mint's chief cornplaint is the height of the relief of the liberty head. Mr. Fraser and I have agreed that in order to overcome that mechanical hindrance to reduce the general relief of the coins by machine-a very simple process-a new hub would have to be made but the result, surely pleasing, would justify my work and the ideals and prestige of the American Fine Arts Commission,'
"The retraction of the changes was not to be. Morgan had learned from the great master of artistic mediocrity, Charles Barber. Despite the artistic merits of his own coin, Morgan blindly slaughtered the relief of the de Francisci Peace dollar. Only well struckspecimens of the earliest 1921 coins as well as three known early Proof specimens convey the artist's original concept.
"De Francisci wasnot so discouraged as to turn his back on the United States government, however. In addition to dec signing military medals, he designed the commemorative half dollar honoring the Maine Centennial. He also created such medals as the World War II discharge insignia, the Congres-sional Medal of Honor for General Pershing, New York's Union Square Memorial, the 1922 crew medal for the British-American Cup Races, and numerous others ... ."
The Year 1921 in History (See under 1921 Morgan dollar)