Franklin Half Dollars 1948-1963

Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross was the force behind putting Benjamin Franklin on the half dollar. Chief Engraver John R. Sinnock had already modeled Franklin for a 1933 Mint medal based on Jean-Antoine Houdon's bust, and Ross had him adapt that portrait. For the reverse he reused the Liberty Bell from his own 1926 Sesquicentennial commemorative half. Federal law required an eagle on coins larger than the dime, so a small eagle was placed in the field to the right of the bell.

Sinnock died on May 14, 1947, before the models were finished, and his successor as Chief Engraver, Gilroy Roberts, completed them. The Commission of Fine Arts disliked the designs, including the visible crack in the bell, but its role was only advisory, and Treasury Secretary John Snyder approved the coin anyway. After a preview dinner at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia on April 29, 1948, the half dollar went on sale the next day. The initials "JRS" on the obverse are Sinnock's.

Proof coinage, suspended during World War II, resumed in 1950, so Franklin proofs exist for 1950 through 1963. After President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, the Franklin was replaced by the Kennedy half dollar beginning in 1964.

The obverse shows Franklin's bust facing right, with LIBERTY arched above, IN GOD WE TRUST along the bottom, and the date in the right field. The reverse shows the cracked Liberty Bell hanging from its beam, the small eagle to the right, E PLURIBUS UNUM to the left, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA around the top and HALF DOLLAR around the bottom.

Mint mark. The mint mark is on the reverse, just above the wooden beam at the top of the bell and directly beneath STATES. A D means Denver and an S means San Francisco. Philadelphia coins have no letter.

Full Bell Lines (FBL). Near the bottom of the bell, sets of horizontal lines run around it. Collectors and graders use them as a gauge of strike quality, and coins with fully struck lines earn the FBL designation. The two major graders define it differently:

• PCGS looks only at the lower set of lines. The coin must grade at least MS60. A few marks across the lines are acceptable if the lines still read as continuous, and small gaps right beside the crack are tolerated.
• NGC requires all of the horizontal lines to be distinct and has no Mint State minimum. It adds the designation during normal grading at no extra fee.

Neither service uses FBL on proofs. FBL availability varies sharply by mint and year. NGC notes that the master hubs had lost detail by about 1951, which left the finer bell lines faint on later coins. Denver coins of the period are generally the best struck, while San Francisco coins seldom qualify.

1956 proof reverses. Proofs of 1956 come with two reverses. Count the feathers to the left of the eagle's perch: four is Type 1, three is Type 2. Type 1 is the scarcer proof.

• 1948: 3,006,814 struck, the third-lowest business-strike mintage. Widely saved as the first year, and FBL coins are easy to find.
• 1949-S: 3,744,000 struck. Apart from commemoratives, it was San Francisco's first half dollar since 1946. Heavy die polishing left some coins prooflike.
• 1953: 2,668,120 struck, second-lowest. Common enough in ordinary Mint State, but very hard to find with FBL because the hubs had worn.
• 1953-S: 4,148,000 struck and plentiful in Mint State, but the condition rarity of the series. PCGS reports fewer than 50 known with Full Bell Lines.
• 1955: 2,498,181 struck, the lowest in the series. Only Philadelphia made circulating halves that year, and most were set aside by the roll. The 1955 is also the best-known "Bugs Bunny" clash date.
• 1956 Proof, Type 1 reverse and Type 2 reverse: NGC gives one figure, 669,384, for all 1956 proofs, without dividing it between the two reverses.
• 1961 Proof, Doubled Die Reverse: FS-801, a doubling so strong that NGC wonders how it passed inspection. It is the standout proof variety of the series, struck in a year that saw 3,028,244 proofs.
• 1963-D: Denver set a new half dollar production record, and the coins were hoarded heavily as the last year of the design.

• Composition: 90% silver, 10% copper, the same for every date, mint and proof
• Weight: 12.5 grams
• Silver content: 0.3617 troy ounces of pure silver per coin
• Diameter: 30.6 mm
• Edge: reeded

The Franklin was never struck in clad metal. Circulated coins of common dates usually trade on their silver value.