Easiest way to tell if you have a 22 high relief if you don’t have a 21 handy for comparison purposes is to look for certain die characteristics. On the obv look at the spike just to the right of the E in LIBERTY. On the high relief it comes to just about the top edge of the bottom leg of the E.
Why do they use high relief on coins?
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.
