DOLLAR

The New York Times

NEW YORK -- Teresa de Francisci, 94, who was the model for Miss Liberty on the Peace Dollar of 1921, died yesterday at Roosevelt Hospital.

She lived in New York. She died of respiratory failure following surgery her daughter said.

Mrs. De Franciscis stylized portrait as Miss Liberty appeared on the Silver Dollar issued to mark the return of peace at the end of World War II. It was the work of her husband Anthony, a sculptor and the creator of many medals, including the innaugural medal for the 1964-65 World's Fair in New York.

On the 50th anniversary of the Peace Dollar, Mrs. De Francisci was honored by numismatists with a plague inscribed, "To a Lady of Peace."

Now a collector's item, the Peace Dollar was issued from 1921 through 1928 and again in 1934 and 1935 before being discontinued.

"I was just an accessory," Mrs. De Francici was quoted as saying on the 60th anniversary of the coin. "And really, my husband wasn't making a portrait of me. He wanted to make an idealized portrait of what freedom represented to him, so it really wasn't a portrait of me at all."

Teresa de Francisci, whose maiden name was Cafarelli, was born in a town south of Naples. At four years old, she sailed to this country with her mother in steerage class. She grew up in Seekonk, Mass. She leaves her daughter.

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