Finding Tony: Anthony de Francisci and the 1921 Peace Dollar

Instructor: Steve Roach

Anthony de Francisci is known to coin collectors as the designer of the Peace Dollar (1921 to 1935) and his famed silver dollar was just a small part of an active sculptor’s studio. Working directly from the artist’s personal scrapbooks, we’ll explore the public reception of his Peace dollar, the popular narrative of his wife who served as the model, and how this single project fit into the larger context of his professional life as a working sculptor in the 1920s. Further, we’ll consider the concept of how this one coin – which represented a single relatively small project for him – has an outsized impact on his reputation.