 On December 28 , Philadelphia Mint Superintendent Freas Styer wired Baker in San Francisco , reporting the first striking of the Peace dollar . The Mint later reported that 1 @,@ 006 @,@ 473 pieces were struck in 1921 , a rate of output for the four days remaining in the year that Burdette calls " amazing " ; he speculates that minting of 1921 Peace dollars continued into 1922 . The first coin struck was to be sent to President Harding , but what became of it is something of a mystery : O 'Reilly indicated that she had the coin sent to Harding , but the inventory of Harding 's estate , prepared after the President died in office less than two years later , does not mention it , nor is there any mention of the coin in Harding 's papers . Breen , in his earlier book on U.S. coins , stated that the coin was delivered to Harding by messenger on January 3 , 1922 , but does not state the source of his information . A few proofs of the 1921 production were struck early in the run , in both satin and matte finishes , but it is unknown exactly how many with either finish were created ; numismatic historians Leroy Van Allen and A. George Mallis estimate the mintage totals at 24 of the former and five of the latter . 
