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walking liberty's Blog

28 Jan 2021

the legend of the 1964 dollar

Coins | walking liberty

Most experienced collectors have heard of the mythical 1964 peace dollar but little have heard the story of it so here it is. in the winter of 1963, the US Treasury asked Congress for funds to make 150 million new silver dollars. This made the coin collecting community rejoice until House Appropriations Committee killed all funds because of the ever-growing coin shortage. But three months later, the Senate passed a 6.24 billion dollar appropriations bill including a provision for some new silver dollars. By late January 1964, the conferees had compromised on 45 million silver dollar coins. (that is a lot!) President Lydon B. Johnson signed the legislation on August 3rd, 1964. The coins would use the original peace dollars design and they would be minted at the Denver Colorado mint. they would also be released at a few million each month. But quickly the massive and ever-growing coin shortage hit so hard it was hard to find coins not to mention the silver shortage coming in like a bullet. Before they were released 316,076 trial pieces were made and 76 of those were real pattern coins. So then the U.S mint destroyed all of the 1964 peace dollars and when they were first made also mint workers got to keep some but they were told they had to exchange them because they were going to be melted. The United States Mint Bureau has said all have been destroyed but there is a chance that some workers have kept theirs instead of returning them. That is what PCGS thing because they are offering a $10,000 reward to JUST SEE a 1964 peace dollar. Today for some reason it is illegal to own a 1964 dated dollar coin because it "belongs" to the government and will be most likely confiscated if found and announced. (image belongs to coinauctionshelp.com)Thank you for reading and hope you have a great week Walking Liberty

Comments

Coins

Level 3

Cool blog

Kurisu

Level 4

Fun topic! The reason it's illegal to own is that once the U.S. Government declares something their property (whether it's the result of a lawsuit or not), if located it must be returned to the Federal Government...Like Moon rocks that came from lunar missions, they keep track of them to within 1000ths of grams! So no moon rocks on Ebay! :-) Unless you've made a particularly lucky meteorite find!!!

CentSearcher

Level 5

Wow, I never heard of this. Very interesting topic, thanks for sharing! I am excited to hear more!

Long Beard

Level 5

Ava Adams, the mint director at the time, most likely had one if not more in her personal collection. After all, she had a 1964 Special Mint Set which sold by Stack's and Bowers. For those unaware, SMS were only offered in 1965, '66 and '67. And then there were the mint employees who exchanged for them, which is recorded in the mint records of 1964, who "supposedly" returned them when the notice from her came down.

I. R. Bama

Level 5

I unfollowed you because you haven't been documenting information and image sources. Your blog posts were banal and at one point irrelevant to the ANA and removed for that reason . I'm glad to see with this blog you wrote something informative and worthwhile. Good job on this one.

slybluenote

Level 5

I resemble ALL of the above remarks! I too have read about these 1964's. When I started my Peace Dollar collection, it was one of the first things I read. Thanks for posting!

Mike

Level 7

Someone has one. And he's not giving it up!! Good for him. And it is the property of the Government as it should be

Stumpy

Level 5

Nice info and blog! Later!

Kepi

Level 6

Cool blog! Interesting for sure ; ) I'm with Golfer...I'd love to find a long lost roll of them. ; )

Longstrider

Level 6

Nice blog. Good explanation. PCGS then keep my mouth shut. It's out there somewhere. Thanks. 🐍

I. R. Bama

Level 5

Very interesting blog, thanks for sharing this with us. It was new information and I enjoyed learning about this. I guess if we ever came across one the first thing we would wonder if it were counterfeit, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it were real?

walking liberty

Level 4

it would but i have a question, why did you unfollow me?

CoinHunter

Level 5

Awesome! That is funny @Golfer, Thanks for the story @WalkingLiberty, you are right, I have heard about the coin, but never heard its story, thanks again!

TheNumisMaster

Level 5

Haha, yes golfer! You're onto something! Haha! WL, thanks for the blog! I never knew the details until now. Cheers!

Golfer

Level 5

Would like to find a roll of them ! Send 1 to PCGS just to see it, then hide the rest !

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