Peace Dollar Silver Facts

The silver Peace Dollar was produced from 1921 through 1935 with no production between 1929 and 1933. It weighs 26.73 grams, is 38.1 mm round and is composed of .900 silver and .100 copper. The coins were minted in Philadelphia, Denver and San Francisco at various times during production. Please see the individual year pages for specific minting information. The Peace Dollar was controversial from its introduction and continues to be so today, but where does the silver that went into it, and into the new American Silver Eagle, come from?

Silver is one of the precious metals. There are eight metals considered to be precious including gold, silver and six separate metals that make up the platinum group.

Silver is produced in about 60 nations around the world and world production is about 18,000 metric tons annually. Mexico produces the most silver followed by Peru, Australia and bringing up fourth place is the U.S. Most of us would assume that all silver comes from silver ore. But that’s not necessarily the case. Actually, only about 25 percent of the silver mined in the world comes from silver ore. Around 15 percent comes from gold ore and the rest comes from a combination of copper, lead and zinc ore.

Silver is mined in 12 states with Nevada leading the way contributing a full 33 percent of all the silver mined in the U.S. Annual production of U.S. mined silver is about $290 million. Of the roughly 27,000 tons of silver mined annualy about 33 percent goes in to jewelry and silverware. Photographic materials uses nearly 25 percent and here in the U.S. over 85 percent of the silver is consumed by photography and other industrial uses.

Silver is certainly not a renewable resource and there is some specualtion among silver industry analysts as to whether there is enough silver to meet demands after the end of the current decade in 2010. While demand has been fairly steady over the course of the past few years it is expected to rise as more industrial applications make use of silver in the future thereby driving prices up.