1921 $1 Zerbe Special Strike (Special Strike)

Farran Zerbe was a numismatic writer, collector of coins and had an extensive numismatic library in the late 1800s's to early 1900's. His extensive collection consisted of over 50,000 coins alone. He served as the President of the ANA from 1908-1910 and had some influential friends in government. In 1915 he was in charge of the Panama Pacific Expositions Official Coin and Medal Department including being involved with the production of the popular $50 Pan-Pac coins, just to name a few.

In order to promote the 1918 Peace Treaty, Zerbe promoted the 1921 Peace Dollar and expected it to circulate that year. However, the Mint failed to release the 1921 Peace Dollars into circulation on time. Consequently, the Mint allegedly struck some Special Strike 1921 Morgan Dollars and gave them to Zerbe to make up for the late release of the 1921 Peace Dollars.

The 1921 Zerbe Special Strike Morgan Dollars were struck on special polished dies but on normal circulation type planchets. Zerbe Special Strikes show many hairlines on the devices of the coins compared to circulation strike coins. Additionally, the Zerbe Special Strikes are not on par with the earlier Proof Morgan Dollars of the era but yet, they are better struck that circulation strike coins. There were also no Proof Morgan Dollars struck in 1921. Approximately 150 – 200 Zerbe Special Strike Morgan Dollars are believed to exist.