Toned peace Dollars
In the November 2025 “Numismatist”
In an article “ Morgan vs Peace Dollars” page 73
By Mitch Sanders. He discusses reasons why there are few toned peace dollars.
Over my 50 years of collecting i have not seen many that i thought were originally toned ,but had been AT’d.
Any thoughts out there? This has been a controversial subject over time.
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Generally, the vibrant toning seen on Morgans is not present on Peace Dollars. I've only seen one that had really nice rainbow coloring to it.
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I think it’s inaccurate to say that there are few toned Peace dollars. Edited: There are, in fact, a very large number of toned ones, but only a tiny minority which are colorful and attractive.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
I honestly dont think the surfaces are right for a peace dollar to develop nice color. Morgans from DMPL to business strikes have smooth surfaces. Peace dollars have really nice lustrous fields but they are not smooth like Morgans. I very much like the surfaces of Peace dollars and the luster is amazing.
This is what I think anyway.
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Cool thread idea. They’re out there but they sure are tough. You guys probably saw the 22s in a PC 63 holder (no CAC) that fetched over $1000 last week in the HA Toned US coin auction.
This is pretty much the only details coin I own. I took one shot at grading it with our hosts, got the QC grade I was expecting, then cracked it and put it back in the Dansco from whence it came.
Here’s my favorite toned Peace Dollar. Ex @lasvegasteddy. On its way to CAC now. MS 65

And here’s one that is stickered. Not a “monster” by any means but about as nicely toned an example as one can expect to find with CAC approval. MS 63 (CAC).


I’ll be very interested to read others’ opinions on why so few nicely toned Peace Dollars ever seem to be available.
Not sure why there are so few around, but I have collected a couple of examples for the novelty of them!
65+ CAC


66
@Floridafacelifter 42603985 certificate number isn't coming up. At least not when I tried.
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
Successful BST transactions with: Namvet Justindan Mattniss RWW olah_in_MA
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The holder was cracked so it’s in the process of a resubmission and may get a new cert #- you know how long that can take
I think I read that the acid baths used for Peace $ planchets were much more acidic then those used for Morgans and prevented the silver reaction with sulfur. Also they did not sit in the canvas bags for decades allowing the sulfur to react with the coin surface.
Those are beauties!
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
It may also be a function of how they were not stored. I remember reading that many Morgans toned the way they did by virtue of the bags they were stored in, which perhaps was not the case for Peace dollars. Peace dollars predated mint sets. Dollar Coins may not have been heavily collected/stored in toning conducive manners around the time they were minted.
I had to look a good period of time to find one for my type set. I lucked out following one of my clichés, to stike while the iron is hot when there is a known set that comes for sale. In this case, great collections had a set, dubbed the “gene Chow collection of toned peace dollars” set, that had a good number of nicely toned pieces. I acquired my piece from that auction. I put in strong bids on two pieces that I could realistically afford, figuring if I won both , one could easily be sold. In the end I want just this one and I am pretty certain it is a forever coin.
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Many would say there is no such thing as attractive toning. Dip em all I say. RIP @ricko .
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A few of my Peace toners. They are out there, but uncommonly rainbow toned. Usually they come in a gunmetal or orange hue. The premium on toned Peace dollars is also muted, when compared to toned Morgans, especially the rainbows & rim-toned specimens.
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And just to add another thought, I actually prefer the challenge of finding toned Peace dollars over trying to find nicely toned Morgans tbh. Less dreck to wade through…
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I purchased this toned 1926-S Peace dollar 15-20 years ago at a local shop. It was in a Paramount holder (black insert).
It has booming luster under the multi colored toning. It was graded MS64 by our host. It looks better in hand than it does in the TrueView photo (the colors and the luster are more vibrant in hand).
I like them like this actually, this is how they normally tone



PCGS gave this toned Peace Dollar a details grade saying it was cleaned for some reason
Mr_Spud
I know there are some but they arent plentiful.
Some great coins above. This one has a little bit of tone,
Interesting pics. The 1923 PCGS cac 63 (top) of thread looks nice.
This one got a details grade, but not because of the toning.
As long as we’re talking toned Peace dollars……..
Is it just me, or are there more nicely toned 1923 Ps out there than any other date in the Peace dollar series?
This is something I feel like I’ve definitely noticed over the years, but could be one of those things that’s just in my own head. Wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing.
You could be right. The 23P had the 2nd highest mintage, 30MM+, and looking at other posts above, looks like the 22P has some nice toners, and they were the highest mintage at 50MM+. Together these 2 dates account for > 40% of the total Peace $'s minted. Maybe with so many minted, some original bags might have escaped release into public hands upon issuance and enjoyed a long time being exposed to the Mint bag sulfur content.
Here’s a 1921 I liked. I sold it a while back:
Here’s a 1921 I liked even more. I kept it.
It lives in a PCGS MS66 CAC holder.
They’re definitely way tougher to find nice than Morgans. I’ve got two… one a monster and the other just really nice, especially given it’s a high relief.
Here is one I picked up 3 years ago

Mike
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