1921 Peace Dollar
Beginning in 1921 the U.S. Mint produced the Peace Dollar which was a 0.77344 troy ounce silver dollar coin which would be the successor to the Morgan Silver Dollar. The Peace dollar was produced from 1921 to 1928 and then again in 1934 & 1935. They were also briefly made in 1965 as 1964 coins, but were melted down and never released to the public. The Peace Dollar was the last silver dollar to be issued by the U.S. Mint and placed in circulation.
Peace Dollars get their name because they was a silver dollar that was to be produced to mark the end of World War I. Interestingly enough, after the making of the 1904 Morgan Dollar, no other silver dollars were produced for circulation until the Peace dollar came along in 1921. At the time, George Morgan was the chief designer at the U.S. Mint and the earlier Morgan dollar was named after George. When the Peace dollar was being designed it was decided to hold a competition for the design of the new Peace Dollar, which was won by a sculpter by the name of Anthony de Francisci.
After the first year of production there were a few changes made to the Peace Dollar. The orginal design was hard to strike and the dies were being broken at a high rate. It was decided for the 1922 Peace Dollar that they would lower the relief. This would make the coins easier to stack and hopefully help with the issue of the breaking dies.
At the end of 1921 production of the Peace Dollar, over 1 million coins had been minted all at the Philadelphia Mint.