Most 1922 Peace Dollars were produced with a Normal Relief design as is the one depicted above in the example image. In the previous year: All 1921 Peace Dollars were High Relief. The US Mint found that this original high relief design produced a higher quality and more beautiful coin but it caused more wear and tear on the dies that produce the coins - which had to be replaced often. So early in 1922: The US Mint decided it was more practical to produce dies that resulted in a coin design with lower relief and lower quality for general circulation.

A small number of 35401 High Relief 1922 Peace dollars were produced but most of them were later melted down - resulting in only a handful of around 10-12 high relief coins (mostly all matte proofs) to survive. More information and analysis about this rare high relief variety can be found below: