100px|A Peace dollar, obverse side
The Peace dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1921 to
1928, and again in 1934 and 1935. Designed by Anthony de Francisci, the
coin resulted from a competition seeking designs emblematic of peace,
and its reverse depicts an eagle at rest clutching an olive branch,
with the legend "PEACE". It was the last United States silver dollar to
be struck for circulation. With the passage of the Pittman Act in 1918,
the United States Mint was required to strike millions of silver
dollars, and began doing so in 1921 using the Morgan dollar design.
Numismatists began urging the Mint to issue a coin evoking peace;
although they failed to get Congress to pass a bill requiring the
redesign, they were able to persuade government officials to take
action. The Peace dollar was approved in December 1921, completing the
redesign of United States coinage which had begun in 1907. The public
believed the announced design, which included a broken sword, was
illustrative of defeat, and the Mint hastily acted to remove the sword
from the design. The Peace dollar was first struck on December 28,
1921; just over a million were coined bearing a 1921 date. When the
Pittman Act requirements were met in 1928, the Mint ceased to strike
the dollars. (more...)
Recently featured: Knowle West, Bristol – 1689 Boston revolt –
Red-capped Robin
Archive – By email – More featured articles...
Read the rest of this article:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_dollar>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
893:
An earthquake destroyed the city of Dvin, Armenia, causing about 30,000
casualties.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/893_Dvin_earthquake>
1907:
The last confirmed sighting of the extinct Huia took place in the
Tararua Ranges, North Island, New Zealand.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huia>
1912:
The San Francisco Municipal Railway, operator of the city's famed cable
car system , opened its first line.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Municipal_Railway>
1989:
In one of Australia's most serious natural disasters, a 5.6 ML
earthquake struck Newcastle, New South Wales, killing 13 people and
injuring more than 160 others, and causing an estimated AU$4 billion in
damages.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_Newcastle_earthquake>
2008:
War in Somalia: Troops of Somalia's Transitional Federal Government
along with their Ethiopian allies captured Mogadishu unopposed.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Mogadishu>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
spelunk (v):
To explore caves
<http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/spelunk>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
The external world of physics has … become a world of shadows. In
removing our illusions we have removed the substance, for indeed we
have seen that substance is one of the greatest of our illusions. ...
The sparsely spread nuclei of electric force become a tangible solid;
their restless agitation becomes the warmth of summer; the octave of
aethereal vibrations becomes a gorgeous rainbow. Nor does the alchemy
stop here. In the transmuted world new significances arise which are
scarcely to be traced in the world of symbols; so that it becomes a
world of beauty and purpose — and, alas, suffering and evil.
The frank realisation that physical science is concerned with a world
of shadows is one of the most significant of recent advances.
--Arthur Stanley Eddington
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Arthur_Stanley_Eddington>