1934-S Peace Silver Dollar. MS-64 (PCGS). CAC.This example presents outstanding Choice Mint State quality for this key date Peace dollar issue. It is highly lustrous with a softly frosted finish and both sides are brilliant apart from wisps of pale reddish-gold iridescence in and around the centers. The strike is above average for a San Francisco dollar of this type, with the overall detail bold and the centers showing plenty of emerging definition.Although it did not have the lowest mintage in its series, the 1934-S has long been recognized as the rarest Peace dollar in terms of total number of Mint State coins extant. Writing in his 1993 reference Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States: A Complete Encyclopedia, Q. David Bowers speculates that many of the 1,011,000 coins minted went into circulation as early as the mid to late 1930s, most being paid out for face value from the San Francisco Mint or West Coast banks. Dealers and other numismatists active in the market of the 1940s paid little attention to the 1934-S, falsely believing that thousands of Mint State coins were still safely tucked away in vaults at the San Francisco Mint. When such pieces failed to emerge during the 1950s or early to mid 1960s, the key date status of the 1934-S in Uncirculated preservation was solidified.PCGS# 7377. NGC ID: 257Z.From the Bimyway Collection. Earlier ex Q. David Bowers Collection.
