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Silver Melting Skews Franklin Numbers
 | By Paul M. Green, Numismatic News
February 06, 2008 |
It has been a slow learning curve when it comes to Franklin half dollars. Slowly but surely we are learning which dates are tough in which grades.
That process seems likely to continue for a while. After all, we are still learning about Morgan dollars and double eagle as well. With some coins, especially those that have been heavily melted in the past, it takes longer to determine what dates might be tougher or more available than we thought based on their mintages. That is the case with Franklin half dollars.
It is probably safe to suggest that things happened slowly when it came to Benjamin Franklin being honored on coins and bank notes. That may not have much of an influence on Franklin half dollar prices today, but it seems to be part of an historical trend. Franklin halves were slow to be approved and slow to gain much popularity with collectors, all of which played a role in creating the situation we have today.
However slowly some things have happened with the Franklin half, the rapid rise in the price of silver has made any old Franklin half worth a minimum of 11.5 times face value, or $5.75 with silver at $16 an ounce.
Historically speaking, Benjamin Franklin has always presented something of a problem when it comes to honoring him on a coin. For a long period that did not really matter as no American was going to be put on a coin. It was a situation that went back to the original debates about coins where the Senate had approved the idea of putting the U.S. President on the coins. The House of Representatives objected. It seemed too much like the British practice of showing the ruler on coins. Of course, at the time anything that seemed remotely like a monarch was not good politics and George Washington quickly joined in on the side of the House of Representatives in opposition to using the President's portrait.
That debate seemed to end any discussion of putting Americans on coins - for over a century. Liberty was the general obverse although that slowly changed with an assortment of Liberty-like designs. The most peculiar was probably the Type 2 gold dollar, which was basically Liberty with a headdress of ostrich plumes. How that was rationalized as being anywhere close to authentic is anyone's guess.
In the Civil War period, Americans living and decesased were routinely placed on bank notes, and patterns were at least produced featuring Washington. The long-standing prohibition against using Americans on coins seemed to weaken. A law was passed regarding bank notes and other paper obligations, which said the American could not be living. Really that law has basically been expanded to coins today, with the exception of commemoratives. In fact, it was interesting that bank notes were seen as different from coins, probably in part because the use of bank notes until the Civil War was not widespread.
Benjamin Franklin did not figure in any of this in a major way. The big issue at the time of the Civil War was George Washington, who both sides wanted to claim as their own. Thomas Jefferson was another. After his assassination, Abraham Lincoln would also figure prominently. These were the three Americans most likely to be used on a circulating coin if there were a change in practice. They did appear on bank notes of the time.
It should no surprise that George Washington was the first of them to appear on a coin, in the form of the commemorative Lafayette dollar dated 1900. In 1909 Abraham Lincoln would become the first to appear on a regular circulating coin. Even the appearance of Lincoln on the cent was not without its critics.
Bank notes, however, seemed to slide under the radar screen when it came to scrutiny. Franklin's portrait was used on notes, and that continues even to the present day with Franklin on the $100 - which is widely used around the world. Franklin is perhaps the most universally recognized American who never held the office of President.
It is actually that fact, that Franklin has never been President, that has made him somewhat of an awkward historical figure. There was little doubt that Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln belonged on coins. It took decades as it seemed that anniversaries of their birth had to be the excuse for putting them on a circulating coin, but eventually with the placing of Jefferson on the nickel in 1938 the big three in American history had finally all had the honor of appearing on a circulating coin. At the time there were probably no plans to consider anyone else, leaving the Mercury dime and Walking Liberty half dollar designs, which were both very popular design, untouched.
Things would come to a head with the death of Franklin Roosevelt in 1945. Roosevelt was special in the eyes of Americans at the time. He had been elected four times to the office of President and had seen the nation through the Great Depression, with a successful conclusion to World War II also in sight at the time of his death. Action was taken quickly to place him on the dime. It was natural to honor Roosevelt and an easy decision for officials as virtually all owed their offices and political careers to the popularity of Roosevelt. The Roosevelt dime would be popular, and it seemed to open the door to the idea of one more change: a new design for the half dollar, which of all the coins in production was the only one not featuring a famous American.
In the minds of many, Benjamin Franklin was next in line. That was especially true in the eyes of Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross, who seemed to have a special interest in Franklin. It is believed that Ross had felt that a Franklin coin was a good idea ever since a Franklin medal was created by Chief Engraver John Sinnock back in 1933. The success of the Roosevelt dime enabled Ross to bring up the idea of a Franklin coin and get approval for the work to begin on designs. She was presumably aware that, by the late 1940s, the Walking Liberty half dollar could be changed without consulting Congress.
It was not a significant problem to come up with a design as Sinnock could simply modify his 1933 medal. He would also take his 1926 U.S. Sesqicentennial commemorative half dollar reverse Liberty Bell and use it for the obverse. Sinnock was just finishing work on his designs when he passed away. That created a problem as the designs had not yet been approved by the Commission of Fine Arts and the committee had some problems with his work.
One of the major problems was the eagle on the reverse, or perhaps more correctly the small blob that was alleged to be an eagle. This was a difficult situation as the law required an eagle on coinage but Sinnock, who was aware of Franklin's historic dislike of the eagle as the national symbol, had attempted to honor the spirit of the man while following the letter of law by creating as insignificant an eagle as was possible. The CFA apparently did not understand the reasons for Sinnock's effort and observed that the eagle "is so small as to be insignificant and hardly discernible when the model is reduced to the size of a coin." It showed a keen grasp of the obvious as that was precisely what Sinnock intended although he was not around to explain his reasons.
The eagle, however, was only part of the problem. The other major issues was the crack in the Liberty Bell. In this instance Sinnock had simply depicted the Liberty Bell as it is, with a crack. The CFA had a problem with that, observing, "The Liberty Bell as shown with the crack in the bell visible; to show this might lead to puns and statement derogatory to United States coinage."
It was an interesting objection and probably an unexpected one as certainly it could be suggested that failing to show a clear and well-known crack might also lead to puns and derogatory statements. The problem was that there was really very little room for compromise. The bell either has the crack or it does not, and to enlarge the eagle would have created a need to probably change the entire reverse - not exactly easy with the artist having died. The secretary of the Treasury, when faced with the assorted problems, simply did what he had the power to do. He ignored the CFA and ordered production to begin. It was perhaps not the desired way of approaching the matter, but the CFA and the secretary of the Treasury were in a period of strained relations anyway as there had also been problems with the Roosevelt dime which had also seen the secretary of the Treasury move ahead despite not having final approval from the CFA.
The Franklin half dollar was released in 1948. Treasury made a number of statements suggesting that it would be a good reminder that Americans should be thrifty. It was apparent very quickly that the Treasury was somewhat more enthused about the new half dollar than much of the public.
In the first few years of production, the Franklin half dollar would see generally low mintages in large part because there were already large supplies of half dollars that had been produced in significant numbers during World War II still available. A half dollar was still a lot of money at the time and the mintages of World War II, which had begun to decline right after the war, had still made the half dollar a denomination that simply did not require a lot of production at the time to meet commercial needs. The low mintages, however, seemed to influence very few collectors and dealers. Although there are a few small hoards known from the period, there are not many. Those there are were usually formed as novelties or because of the new design, such as the Davenport, Iowa, bank holdings that Q. David Bowers reported on in his book American Coin Treasures and Hoards, which involved rolls of the 1948.
Throughout its entire period of production, there were realistically a number of factors working against the saving and collecting of Franklin halves. The half dollar was simply too much money to put aside at the time. If you were going to spend a lofty sum like half a dollar, that would get you a roll of cents the treasures potentially waiting in that cent roll would have seemed far better than any single, current half dollar.
Dealers would also reflect the situation with their customers. Many at the time were simply collecting from circulation, and in circulation any Franklin half dollar was readily available, no matter how low its mintage. In fact, I can remember getting one roll of 1948 coins from all mints, and at the time the Franklins of 1948 and 1949 were seen as the best dates. With no expected demand, dealers simply had no reason to acquire any numbers of Franklin half dollars so roll saving would have been minimal.
In the case of Franklin halves that were saved, there was a factor influencing their potential survival and that was the late-1970s rise in the price of silver, which peaked at $50 an ounce in early 1980. At that price virtually any Franklin half dollar in any grade was a coin worth more as a silver bar than as a coin in a collection. That has almost certainly put a serious dent in Franklin half dollar supplies in all grades. It is also likely to play a role in making some dates from the late 1950s and early 1960s far tougher than expected in MS-65 and MS-65 with full bell lines, as the heavy melting of those dates might well have claimed some of the nicest coins of the period.
In MS-60 the Franklin half dollar remains an available and inexpensive set today. The key date is the 1949-S at a current listing of $62.50 in MS-60 and it is followed by a number of others such as the 1952-S at $50, the 1949-D at $43.50 and the 1949 at $38.50. They are the better dates and those Mint State prices remain very reasonable. An increasing number of dates are slowly moving to the $25 range, probably reflecting the poor survival of even seemingly common dates.
In MS-65 the key date again is from 1949 but this time it is the 1949-D, which lists for $900. That price is a solid increase in recent years. The next most expensive date would surprise many based on its mintage. The 1960-D is not a date many would expect to be expensive, but it is at $475 in MS-65, followed by the 1950-D at $425 and the 1961-D and 1962-D, which have to be called additional surprises at around $200.
The focus in recent years has been on Franklin half dollars in MS-65 with full bell lines. That was a grade no one had even considered back in the 1950s and 1960s when Franklin half dollars were being produced. The coins that are available today were probably put aside as gems at the time and they just happened to end up being ones with full bell lines. The key MS-65 FBL is the 1953-S, which would not normally be considered a key date but it is almost unavailable in MS-65 FBL, its current listing of $16,000 a big jump from its 1998 listing of $3,500. There have been much higher prices recorded for even higher grades where the 1953-S is extremely scarce, having been reported only a couple times by the grading services in MS-66 with full bell lines.
It a big gap to the next group in MS-65 BL where we find the 1962 at $1,850 along with the 1949 and 1961 which are $1,750 with the 1950-D, 1952-S and 1960-D also over $1,000.
Also getting attention are proofs. They, too, were melted. Focus has been on examples with cameo appearance. As might be expected, the earlier dates with very low mintages are more expensive, starting with the 1950 at $3,700 in Proof-65 Cameo while the 1951 is listed at $2,200 and 1952 at $1,100. They are followed by the 1953 and 1959 at $475. The 1959 had a large mintage but also heavy melting, and that may have resulted in very few remaining examples with deep cameo surfaces.
The future of the Franklin half dollar is likely to be bright. While interest has been growing, so far it has still not reached the levels that are possible. The Franklin half dollar is an available set of 90 percent silver coins. If you demand quality, you are going to find some very real challenges. It makes for an excellent combination for the collectors of today, and it is safe to assume that more will come to discover all the Franklin half dollar has to offer.
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