1933 HK-824, Pedley-Ryan Type III Dollar

Coin Details

Auction Record

$900 MS63 08-19-2020 Heritage Auctions

Description

This 1933 Pedley-Ryan Dollar (HK-824) documents the 'Buy-an-Ounce-of-Silver' campaign launched by Pedley-Ryan & Co., a Denver investment house, on January 5, 1933. This is Type III in the seven-type series. The series encompasses seven types (HK-822 through HK-828) produced over the first half of 1933. Type I (60 pieces, January 5) and Type II (15 pieces, January 6) were the earliest, with Type II withdrawn after a fineness error and 'Fine' chiseled out of the die for Type III (fewer than 85). Type IV (up to 500 pieces, January 7 onward) became the most common variety. Type V omitted 'Denver' from the obverse, Type VI featured a 'Robbins on the Corner' counterstamp (300 sold in one day), and Type VII (50 pieces, June 1933) was the sole embossed variety with all previous types stamped incuse. Type III (fewer than 85 pieces) was created from the corrected Type II die after "Fine" was removed, making it a transitional variety. The campaign spawned related state issues: the Montana Dollar (HK-820) and the Nevada Dollar (HK-821), the latter created when a Pedley-Ryan agent sold blank planchets to Sterling Co. in Nevada, who stamped them with their own name and state while using Pedley-Ryan's reverse dies. Together, these Depression-era silver dollars document the moment when silver advocacy, economic desperation, and entrepreneurial initiative converged in the American West during the darkest year of the Great Depression. The HK numbering system groups so-called dollars broadly by type: exposition and commemorative pieces in the lower numbers, with monetary, miscellaneous, and later additions in higher ranges. Lettered suffixes (a, b, c, d) typically indicate variant compositions or die states of the same basic design, while entries above HK-900 include pieces added in later catalog supplements.

Rarity Notes

Pedley-Ryan Dollars survive in moderate numbers for the more common types, though silver examples and higher type numbers are scarcer. Depression-era scrip so-called dollars are actively sought by collectors of both so-called dollars and Depression-era Americana. Silver examples command the strongest premiums.

Cross References

HK-824; PCGS #643559