Franklin Half Dollars, 1948-1963, Basic Circulation Issue
Private
Updated:
10/30/2025
Views: 239
The Franklin half dollar was struck by the United States Mint from 1948 to 1963. I've always preferred coins found in their "natural skin", and this set includes some uniquely toned examples.
The fifty-cent piece pictures Founding Father Benjamin Franklin on the obverse and the Liberty Bell on the reverse. A small eagle was placed to the right of the bell to fulfill the legal requirement that half dollars depict the figure of an eagle. Produced in 90 percent silver with a reeded edge, the coin was struck at the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints.
Mint director Nellie Tayloe Ross had long admired Franklin and wanted him to be depicted on a coin. In 1947, she instructed her chief engraver, John R. Sinnock, to prepare designs for a Franklin half dollar. Sinnock's designs were based on his earlier work, but he died before their completion. The designs were completed by Sinnock's successor, Gilroy Roberts. The Mint submitted the new designs to the Commission of Fine Arts for its advisory opinion. The Commission disliked the small eagle and felt that depicting the crack in the Liberty Bell would expose the coinage to jokes and ridicule. Despite the Commission's disapproval, the Mint proceeded with Sinnock's designs.
I've been collecting Franklins in both circulated condition and occasionally, mint state examples, since my youth. The coins design simplicity with its spacious obverse field has always been aesthetically pleasing to me.
My goal as a Franklin collector involves continuing my pursuit of finding interesting examples for this modern era half dollar set.
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