1922-S

The 1922-S, at 17,475,000 pieces, opened the San Francisco run of the Peace Dollar series and recorded a slightly larger output than Denver's 15-million figure for the same year. The Pittman Act of 1918's recoinage timeline gave San Francisco a meaningful share of the 1922 production order, and the second-year output spread across all three operating mints for the first time in the series. Anthony de Francisci's Low Relief design replaced the 1921 High Relief that had been confined to Philadelphia, and San Francisco's dies came up to the same Low Relief specifications used at Philadelphia and Denver.

Strike quality on the 1922-S established the pattern that would define San Francisco Peace Dollar production for the rest of the series. S-mint dies tended to produce weak hair detail above Liberty's ear and softness on the eagle's breast feathers, with the high-relief central design elements striking up less cleanly than at the eastern mints. Most surviving examples grade MS60 to MS64 from circulation and broken Treasury bag releases, with PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, and NGC populations clustering at MS63. MS65 examples are scarce and command real premiums; MS66 and above is condition-rare even given the 17-million mintage. No major doubled-die or repunched-mintmark varieties carry material premiums.

The 1922-S is a regular common date in lower grades but a meaningful condition rarity above MS64. Pricing has held flat for two decades at the low end and trended upward at the high end, with the gap between MS64 and MS65 reflecting the cumulative effect of the S-mint strike issues on the certified-pop ratio. The 1922-S anchors the entry-grade S-mint pickup of the series and pairs naturally with the 1923-S as the early-run San Francisco issues. For the Pittman Act backdrop and the broader San Francisco strike-quality pattern across the series, see the Peace Dollar series history.