Peace Silver Dollars 1921-1935 Coin

The "war to end all wars" destroy far abrupt of that good aspiration. What chronicle now terms World War I, which ravished Europe from 1914 to 1918, did stir worldwide yearning, however, for harmony. One directly product of that zealous dream was the League of Nations. Trice, fewer ambitious but regularly sincere, was the Peace dough. America shunned the League, but favorably embraced the coin.

Following the war, there was widespread sentiment for issuance of a coin that would celebrate and commemorate the restoration of peace. The American Numismatic Association played a key function in fostering this offer. At the same time, the U. S. Mint found itself facing the ought to fright producing millions of silver dollars. That poverty grew out of the Pittman Act, a law enacted in 1918 at the urging of-and plainly benefiting-silver-mining happiness. Under this calculate, the government was empowered to melt as many as 350 million silver dollars, move the silver into gold and then moreover advertise the metal or use it to products subsidiary silver penny. It also was essential to beat replacement dollars for all that were melted.

Aside from serving silver producers, the law also aided Great Britain, a wartime ally at the time. During economic living 1918 and 1919, the U. S. Government melted a whole of more than 270 million silver dollars, and most of these-259,121,554-finished up being sold in bullion form to the British, who desired the silver to covenant with an economic calamity in India. During that same interlude, the United States melted 11,111,168 silver dollars to attain new raw relevant for subsidiary coins of its own.

The coins that were melted under the language of the Pittman Act represented virtually half the entire production of stock silver dollars (as distinguished from Trade dollars) made by the U. S. Mint up to that court. Even so, the pasting was no particular blow to the country's export. Silver dollars were since only partial use, and lasting inventories were more than sufficient to function commercial wishes. Demand for the coins was so token, in verity, that nothing had been shaped for more than a dozen time-since 1904.

Against this scene, the Mint had no logic to smack new silver dollars as replacements for the ones that had been melted-but the Pittman Act necessary it to do so. Accordingly, in 1921, after the price of silver had fallen from postwar highs, it ongoing cranking out the long-perched Morgan silver dollars once again. It did so, in truth, in profile figures: During that sole year, the various mints fashioned a whole of more than 86 million examples-simply the peak one-year character in the sequence.

By interesting coincidence, Morgan money production resumed on the very same day-May 9, 1921-that legislation was introduced in Congress work for the issuance of a new silver money marking the postwar peace. As described by its sponsors in a general resolution, the new coin would generate "an appropriate strategy commemorative of the termination of the war between the Imperial German Government and the Government of the people of the United States."

Congress adjourned lacking taking action on the compute. It twisted out, however, that congressional authorization wasn't genuinely needed, since the Morgan buck-having been shaped for more than the official least of 25 days-was topic to replacement without detailed legislative penalize.

To find designs for the coin, the national Commission of Fine Arts agreed a competition involving a small group of the people's finest medalists. The nine invitees included such imminent artists as Victor D. Brenner, Adolph A. Weinman and Hermon A. MacNeil, all whom had intended earlier U. S. Coins. Nevertheless the winner bowed out to be an infantile Italian immigrant named Anthony de Francisci, whose keenly chiseled portrait of Liberty was modeled after his infantile wife Teresa. The back of the coin shows an eagle in lounge atop a cliff, peering regarding the sun through a string of heat, with the word PEACE superimposed on the swing. No other U. S. Coin shaped for circulation has ever borne that motto.

Production of 1921 Peace dollars didn't get under way pending the decisive week of December, and just over a million examples were fashioned. It rapidly became obvious that the coin's relief was too high, making it hard to arrange and causing undue die fissure. The Mint corrected the crisis in 1922 by tumbling the relief-but in the process, it fairly lowered the coin's aesthetic request, as well.

By 1928, the Mint had produced enough Peace dollars to gratify the Pittman Act's requirements. It so halted production. The lid on silver dollars was clamped down even tighter with the arrival of the Depression the next year. The target returned for a two-year curtain call in 1934, mostly because more cartwheels were needed as grant for silver certificates. The 1934-S proved to be one of the key coins in the sequence, along with the 1921 and the 1928. The mintmark is below the word ONE on the change. A handful of matte proofs exist, but only for 1921 and 1922.

Silver dollars-of both designs-were basically unseen by collectors pending the early 1960s, when silver certificate redemptions and the exposure surrounding the Treasury's sales of $1,000 bags of dollars to all comers shaped new relevance in the large silver coins. Ironically, Peace dollars had been swiftly offered at banks for decades, and following Treasury Department policy, were paid out before Morgan dollars were disbursed. Nevertheless few collectors were interested in completing sets of these relatively dear coins, judgment it more handy to assemble collections of the lesser denominations: A silver dollar represented a considerable sum in the 1930s and '40s-enough to buy five dozen eggs or ten boxes of Wheaties. It wasn't until the very early 1960s, when the Treasury had almost emptied its vaults of Peace dollars, that the more required after Morgans started to pour forwards, fueling collector enthusiasm for both sequence in the process.

The entire run of Peace dollars consists of just 24 coins, none of them great rarities. Thus, many collectors strive for finished year-and-mint sets. Pristine, high-grade pieces are elusive, however; weak strikes were common, and the broad, open plan made the coins vulnerable to dress and dent. Points to restrain for clothing are Liberty's face, neckline and the hair over her ear and above her temple. On the reorder, scuff will first show on the eagle's wing, leg and skull.

The Peace dollar's early demise was ominously symbolic. Four years later, in 1939, World War II erupted in Europe. The plan came very close to reappear once more in 1964, when Congress authorized production of 45 million new silver dollars, apparently in a strength to fulfil the wants of Nevada gambling casinos. With the slighter silver coins rapidly disappearing from circulation, this was viewed as a gift to exclusive good. After the Denver Mint produced 316,076 Peace dollars (square 1964) in May of 1965, order rescinded the authorization of President Johnson. Although all pieces were to be recalled and melted, rumors persist of several coins extant.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 little genuine silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Publishing Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Eisenhower Dollar 1973 Proof

When the Treasury Department prepare a halt to the paying out of silver dollars in March of 1964, it looked like the closing interval had been written for these historic coins. Surprisingly, Congress voted that same year to coin 45 million additional silver dollars. Coming in the midst of a spartan nationwide coin lack, this seemingly frivolous employment of the Mint's machinery and person power was ended after just 316,076 pieces had been struck, and these coins were never issued. The Coinage Acted of July 23, 1965 included a provision that no rank silver dollars were to be coined for a period of five being. The situation could then be re-evaluated at that time.

As the end of Congress' five-year ban on silver dollars approached, the idea was conceived for a circulating buck coin to credit war hero and two-tenure President Dwight David Eisenhower, who had freshly died. With silver long left from the citizens's dimes and quarters, and with ongoing dispute over its discontinuance in the half cash, there was never any profound consideration of with the precious metal in circulation strikes of the new Eisenhower money. There were those, however, who argued for a silver collectors' style to be sold at a premium over face treasure.

Congressman Bob Casey of Texas introduced a charge into the House on October 29, 1969 work for a circulating commemorative money to reverence both Eisenhower and the Apollo XI liberty flight, mankind's first hall on the moon. More than a year of next wrangling was to track before this statement was lastly official in a modified form. Along the way, the U.S. Mint prepared an alternative reversal propose featuring a heraldic eagle that looked, in the terms of imminent numismatic writer Q. David Bowers, like something one would find on a Mint prototype of the 1870s. Reportedly, one of the two proposed reversal designs (doubtless the Apollo XI image, given its implications for the world's coming) originally featured an eagle whose expression the U.S. State Department feared other nations would translate as hostile. Whether the eagle which ultimately did grow on the coin's reorder is a "open" bird is testing to establish from its neutral expression.

Becoming law on December 31, 1970, the schedule that shaped the Eisenhower cash providing for a circulating coin made from the copper-nickel sandwich or "dressed" composition then being worn for dimes and quarters (and for half dollars start in 1971). It also tolerable the coining of up to 150 million silver-clothed coins for retailing to collectors. These would be coined in the same composition lately worn for halves square 1965-70, two outer layers that were 80% silver and 20% copper bonded to an inside extract that was about 21% silver and 79% copper. This bent a whole mix that was 40% silver, with the equalize being copper. A controversial amendment to this document if a portion of the profits from the vending of these antenna coins would be donated to Eisenhower College, a reserved institution in Seneca Falls, New York which ultimately folded though receiving some $9 million dollars from this spring.

As Mint Director Mary Brooks wanted the coins bent rapidly, there was no time for a shared propose competition. Chief Engraver Franked Gasparro was directed to arrange the models in as little time as vital. Expecting this currency, Gasparro had already begun work; his galvano for the facade bore the year 1970, even though the first Ike dollars were square 1971. His devise portrays on the obverse a bare-headed, left-facing profile bust of the recent leader. Arranging in an arc above him is the legend LIBERTY, while the motto IN GOD WE TRUST appears in two outline below Eisenhower's cheek. The date is at base, with the mintmark (if any) above it and to the right. Gasparro's initials FG are on the truncation of the bust. The problem depicts the American eagle, a lime diverge of stillness in its talons, descending onto the moon. The hazy Earth is in the handle above and to the left. The motto E PLURIBUS UNUM is centered above the eagle, and the legend UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is given in an arc around the high fringe. The price ONE DOLLAR is superimposed on the moon's surface along the lessen border. An arc of small stars surrounds the eagle, Earth and the motto. The initials FG occur below the eagle's tail.

Why the coins were not ready to be issued until November 1, 1971 isn't certain, although it was supposed the abundant tribunal strikes were abandoned because of goal deficiencies. Collectors snapped up a good portion of the dollars free that day and for some months afterward. Still, enough were coined that they ultimately reached the channels of buying. It was only then that the fundamental flaw in Congressional belief was naked: the American open minimally had no desire to use these large and gloomy coins. True, betting casinos welcomed the revenue of truthful cash coins to succeed the cash-sized tokens that had been used since 1965, but even the casinos ultimately hackneyed of these coins. Too often, customers took them home as souvenirs, since they were seldom seen elsewhere and people imagined them to be underdone.

With a dropoff in ultimatum for new Ike dollars, the Mint opted to register only enough of the 1973 magazine to discharge tips for uncirculated coin sets from collectors. This left a net mintage of excluding than 2 million each for the Philadelphia and Denver Mints. From the outset, San Francisco had coined only the unusual aerial coins: the uncirculated copy of the silver-dressed composition (known from it's packaging as the "desolate Ike") and the evidence form of the same coin (known as the "coffee Ike"). Beginning in 1973, it also coined an evidence edition of the copper-nickel coin for inclusion in the expected resistant set.

The residents's impending Bicentennial resulted in a competition for commemorative designs to mercy the reverses of the section, half and dough, respectively. The pleasing point for the buck's undo was submitted by Dennis R. Williams, whose clever theory of the Liberty Bell superimposed on the moon provided a connect between previous and offering (his initials DRW are found to the right of the signal's clapper). The steady buck coinage square 1974 sustained until the middle of 1975, when production of the new Bicentennial designs dated 1776-1976 began. This left no dollar coins dated 1975. The Bicentennial pieces were first released in the plummet of 1975, and their mintage lasting through the following year. Silver-clothed coins were made at San Francisco, besides the circulating version coined at Philadelphia and Denver. The even motif returned in 1977 and 1978, when the Eisenhower series was ended in benefit of the ill-meant Susan B. Anthony "baby dollar." For these two years, however, no Ikes were coined in silver.

There are no bloody dates within the reliable coinage of Eisenhower dollars, although several issues, particularly 1971 and 1972 dollars from the Philadelphia Mint, were poorly made and are stubborn to locate array. Several teenager varieties resulted from refinements to the hubs during the first few years. The Bicentennial coins subsist with both the Variety 1 reverse (broad script) or the Variety 2 (narrow lettering). A small mass of silver-clothed dollars were made at the Denver Mint in mistake and may be found dated 1974-D, 1976-D or 1977-D. Proofs of the Bicentennial dollar were coined in 1974 at the Philadelphia Mint lacking a mintmark, but none are known to survive. A song silvered-dressed resilient of the jiffy category has been documented lacking a mintmark, its place of source strange.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 24.59 grams (silver-clad) Composition: .800 silver.200 copper bonded to .209 silver.791 copper Net Weight: .3161 ounce complete silver Weight: 22.68 grams (CuNi-clad) Composition: .750 copper.250 nickel bonded to downright copper Edge: Reeded

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States, A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Wiles, James, Ph.D, CONECA Attribution Guide to Eisenhower Dollar Varieties, CONECA, Fort Worth, TX, 1997. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 48th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1994.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

1904 Morgan Dollar, Brilliant Uncirculated

Political bulldoze, not civic petition, brought the Morgan cash into being. There was no unfeigned must for a new silver buck in the deceased 1870s; the last before "flip," the Liberty Seated dough, had been legislated out of reality in 1873, and barely anyone missed it.

Silver-mining happiness did neglect the buck, still, and lobbied Congress forcefully for its benefit. The Comstock Lode in Nevada was yielding giant quantities of silver, with ore appraise $36 million being extracted annually. After some futile attempts, the silver forces in Congress-led by Representative Richard ("Silver Dick") Bland of Missouri-finally disarmed authorization for a new silver money when Congress approved the Bland-Allison Act on February 28, 1878. This Acted essential the Treasury to obtain at market levels between two million and four million dollars of silver gold every month to be coined into dollars. This amounted to a small subsidy, arrival when the money's face penalty exceeded its intrinsic regard by only 0.07%.

In November 1877, virtually four months before passage of the Bland-Allison Act, the Treasury saw the handwriting on the roadblock and began making preparations for a new cash coin. Mint Director Henry P. Linderman designed Chief Engraver William Barber and one of his assistants, George T. Morgan, to make prototype dollars, with the best originate to be worn on the new coin. Actually, Linderman permanent this "contest" in Morgan's help; he had been dissatisfied with the work of the two Barbers-William and his son, Charles-and in 1876 had hired Morgan, a talented British engraver, with tactics to delegate him with new coin designs. At that time, resumption of silver dough penny was not yet planned, and Morgan began work on designs planned for the half money. Following Linderman's orders that a move of Liberty should return the thorough-notable depiction then in use, Morgan recruited Philadelphia drill coach Anna Willess Williams to pose for the new point.

Morgan's face features a left-facing portrait of Miss Liberty. The hitch depicts a rather skinny eagle which led some to vilify the coin as a "buzzard buck." The designer's early M appears on both sides-a first. It's on the truncation of Liberty's spit and on the ribbon's left round on the overturn. Mintmarks (O, S, D, and CC) are found below the circlet on the change. Points to confirm for carry on Morgans are the tresses above Liberty's eye and ear, the high upper fold of her cap and the crown of the eagle's breast.

Soon after production began, somebody advised the Mint that the eagle should have seven tail down, instead of the eight being exposed, and Linderman prepared this change. As an outcome, some 1878 Morgan dollars have eight feathers, some seven-and some show seven over eight. The seven-over-eight class is the scarcest, though all are somewhat customary.

More than half a billion Morgan dollars were struck from 1878 through 1904, with production taking place at the chief mint in Philadelphia and the branches in New Orleans, San Francisco and Carson City. Carson City production was normally much minor and defunct all together after that outlet was bunged in 1893. The coin came back for one closing curtain call in 1921, when more than 86 million examples were bent under the language of the Pittman Act at Philadelphia, San Francisco and Denver-but that was a bend-edged sword: Under the 1918 legislation, more than 270 million adult silver dollars, almost all Morgans, had been melted. The law necessary replacements for these, but most were of the Peace shape, which replaced the Morgan edition at the end of 1921.

In all, some 657 million Morgan dollars were formed in 96 different year-and-mint combinations. Hundreds of millions were melted over the time-by the government under the Pittman Act and the Silver Act of 1942, and by exclusive refiners since the delayed 1960s, when rising silver prices made this profitable. Despite all the melting, Americans had more than enough Morgans to pervade their daily wishes, since the dollars circulated often only in the West. As an outcome, colossal stockpiles remained in the Treasury's vaults, as well as reserve vaults nationwide. This explains why, so many Morgan dollars are so well preserved nowadays although their age; few saw actual use.

Even as the numismatic hobby underwent express lump beginning in the 1930s, hobby in other collecting areas far outpaced the mind paid to the large Morgan cartwheels. Most collectors favored the slash face-value coins (with their lower price) that were gladly available in circulation. Although it was viable to order silver dollars through banks or quickly from the Treasury, few noticed or cared. In the behind 1930s, however, some Washington dealers scholarly that the Treasury Department's Cash Room near the White House was paying out uncirculated Carson City money-coins having a market value of $5 or more at the time! More than a few dealers calmly exploited this discovery throughout the 1940s and '50s.

In the early 1960s, with silver rising in price, opportunists recognized the occasion to rotation securely profits by abiding silver certificates for money coins-mostly Morgans-at the Treasury. By the time the government clogged this rewarding glass in 1964, only 2.9 million cartwheels were left in its vaults, almost all of the scarce Carson City Morgans. The General isolated these Services Administration in a sequence of letters-bid sales from 1972 through 1980, earning big profits for the government and triggering great new notice in silver dollars.

Interest in Morgans was auxiliary heightened by the promotion surrounding the 400,000+ dollars found in the basement of Nevada eccentric LaVere Redfield's home. After word leaked out of the amazing store, some dealers got into the act, each jockeying for take in a crawl that ultimately wrecked with a Probate Court mart detained in January of 1976. At that auction, A-Mark Coins of Los Angeles captured the pile with a disarming bid of $7.3 million. The coins were cooperatively marketed by several dealers over a cycle of some days. Rather than depressing prices, the orderly spreading of these coins only fetched more collectors into the Morgan dollar fold. Similarly, the early 1980s witnessed the uniformly successful distribution of the 1.5 million silver dollars in the Continental Bank collect.

The Morgan dollar's scoop is a Cinderella tale: Until the 1960s, it was mostly unnoticed by the civic. Since then, it has gradually become among the most broadly pursued and preferred of all U. S. Coins. Although many collectors find the challenge of assembling an extreme court and mintmark set in Mint State compelling, others gratify themselves with collecting just one coin per year. Exceptional specimens are also wanted after by typeface collectors.

Major keys contain 1895, 1893-S, 1895-O, 1892-S, 1889-CC, 1884-S and 1879-CC. Mint minutes show that 12,000 dealing-smack dollars were made in Philadelphia in 1895, but only proofs are known; the mintage of these is 880. Proofs were made for every year in the series, but only a few brilliant proofs-variously reported at 15 to 24-are known for 1921. Prooflike Morgans also are well valued and are composed in both Prooflike (PL) and Deep-Mirror Prooflike (DPL or DMPL).

Few coins in U.S. account have been greeted with more indifference at the time of their release than this silver dollar. And few, if any, have then departed onto stimulate such passionate excitement among collectors.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 38.1 millimeters Weight: 26.73 grams Composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net Weight: .77344 ounce downright silver

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bowers, Q. David, Silver Dollars & Trade Dollars of the United States. A Complete Encyclopedia, Bowers and Merena, Wolfeboro, NH, 1993. Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Fey, Dr. Michael S. And Oxman, Jeff, The Top 100 Morgan Dollar Varieties: The VAM Keys, RCI Publishing, Morris Plains, NJ, 1996. Miller, Wayne, The Morgan and Peace Dollar Textbook, Adam Smith Pub. Co., Metairie, LA, 1982. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co. Inc., New York, 1966. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993. Van Allen, Leroy C. & Mallis, A. George, Comprehensive Catalog and Encyclopedia of Morgan & Peace Dollars, 3rd Edition, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA 1991.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.

Franklin Half Dollars 1948-1963

In 1948, World War II had given way to an uneasy calm-a "Cold War," as presidential adviser Bernard Baruch so aptly named the new climate of international tension. The year also witnessed the killing of baseball legend Babe Ruth, the birth of the State of Israel and, with his presidential selection commotion of Thomas E. Dewey, a new lease on life in the White House for Harry S Truman.

In 1948, an important change took place in United States change as well, when the Franklin half money made its entrance. Its introduction finished the conversion of U.S. coin designs from allegorical figures to portraits of notorious Americans. It also rang down the curtain on an era that many involve as the blond age of U. S. Currency art. The Walking Liberty half bucked, last struck in 1947, was the decisive precious-metal coin enduring in production from the early 20th-century interlude that spawned the "Mercury" dime, Standing Liberty area and Saint-Gaudens magnify eagle.

Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross had contemplated a coin reverence Benjamin Franklin ever since a U.S. Mint nobility ready in Franklin's honor in 1933 by John R. Sinnock, the Mint's chief sculptor-engraver. Evidence suggests that Ross might have made the change in the early 1940s, when the half dough's conceive, worn for the statutory lowest of 25 living, became eligible for replacement. Although escalating production burden occasioned by World War II postponed Ross' strategy, she showed her enthusiasm for the predict by directing Sinnock to invent a Franklin coin on a contingency source. It would be hard to criticize Director Ross for her variety of Ben Franklin as a U.S. money focus. Of all the Founding Fathers, Franklin very possible enjoyed the most build among his contemporaries, not only in this country but also abroad. He was fairly legendary as an imprinter, publisher, author, inventor, scientist and moderator, and he played a crucial task in ration the colonies return their independence by securing crucial aid from France.

In an oration at the promotion of the Franklin half cash, Ross recalled the people had urged her to place Franklin's likeness on the cent because he was identified so narrowly with the guideline "A money saved is twopence vindicate" (often misquoted as "A currency saved is a penny earned"). Ross explained her catalog of the half buck: "You will permit, I trust, that the fifty-cent part, being bigger and of silver, lends itself much better to the production of an impressive result," she declared.

Sinnock's picture of Franklin, modeled after a bust by 18th-century sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon, is bold and cleanse, contrasting sharply with the clever, complete depiction of Miss Liberty on the Walking Liberty coin it replaced. LIBERTY is extolled above the right-facing portrayal, IN GOD WE TRUST below and the time to Franklin's right. Tucked below Franklin's shoulder are Sinnock's initials, JRS.

The Liberty Belled on the repeal made sense as a compliment to Franklin, since both have become narrowly identified not only with the populace's birth but also with the city of Philadelphia. Three inscriptions are arranged around the timer in the same minus serif tailor used on the frontage: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is above, HALF DOLLAR below and E PLURIBUS UNUM, in much lesser script, to the left. To the right of the timer is a frail-looking eagle. This had been mandatory by law on the half cash since 1792 and was reaffirmed by the Coinage Act of 1873, which mandated the post of an eagle on every U.S. silver coin superior to the dime. The eagle was added by Gilroy Roberts, who finished work on the coin following Sinnock's fatality in 1947.

Understandably, the central Commission of Fine Arts (an advisory body) took deliver with the eagle's size. Oddly enough, they also disapproved of displaying the crack in the Liberty Bell, arguing that "to show this might charge to puns and to statements derogatory to United States money." Although the Commission recommended a blueprint competition, the Treasury Department approved Sinnock's models lacking change.

Years later, Sinnock was accused of modeling his report of the Liberty Bell, lacking prim belief, on a sketch by performer John Frederick Lewis. The robbery first occurred in 1926, when Sinnock apparently used the sketch in fashioning his purpose for the commemorative half money marking the sesquicentennial of U.S. independence. His Franklin half buck overturn figure was patterned, in turn, on that earlier work. Numismatic allusion books now praise Lewis tardily for his role.

Although Franklin half dollar mintages were modest by novel-day standards, the string contains no issues that are particularly erratic. The production lowed headland came in 1953, when the Philadelphia Mint struck just under 2.8 million examples; the peak occurred in 1963, when the Denver Mint made just over 67 million. Franklin halves also were minted in San Francisco. On fork-mint issues, the D or S mintmark appears above the bell on the contrary. Total mintage for the chain, with proofs, was almost 498 million coins.

Because they are so bounteous, in circulated situation most Franklin halves take little or no premium above their bullion amount. Several dates are subtle, however, in the upper mint-national grades, especially with effusive defined "bell defenses" near the Liberty Bell's foot. Although the relatively low mintage 1949-D and 1950-D issues are considered "key" dates in the chain, some coins with higher mintages, while customary in lower grades, also command impressive premiums in Mint State-65 and above. These coins routinely came with weak strikes, and the paucity of "ornaments" is compounded by the statement that few were wisely saved. Dates in this grouping involve 1960-D, 1961-P and D and 1962-P and D. Proofs were issued every year from 1950 through 1963 as part of yearly evidence sets: over 15.8 million were made. Small numbers of proofs were struck with cameo disparity, an attractive frozen outward on the campaign contrasted with a polished mirror-like appearance in the fields. These cameo coins can beget substantial premiums over the prices of ordinary proofs without such contrast.

A full set of Franklin halves consists of 35 different question strikes and 14 different proofs. Because it is so compact and certainly affordable in minus-than-unspoiled grades, the series is widely serene by year and mint. Those with deeper pockets who ardor a challenge seek to assemble dating-and-mint sets in MS-65 and above or collections of high-grade proof Franklins with resonant cameo contrast. Points on the design to first show garb are Franklin's cheek, shoulder and fleece behind the ear and the lettering and ranks on the Liberty Bell.

Franklin half dollars were made for just 16 time. The series was cut succinct at the end of 1963, when John F. Kennedy's shocking assassination led to the concept of a new the dollar memorializing the martyred head.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Diameter: 30.6 millimeters Weight: 12.50 grams composition: .900 silver.100 copper Edge: Reeded Net load: .36169 degree innocent silver

BIBLOGRAPHY: Breen, Walter, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins, F.C.I. Press/Doubleday, New York, 1988. Ehrmantraut, Jack, Jr., An Analysis of Gem Franklin Half Dollars, Five Seasons Publishers, Hiawatha, IA, 1983. Taxay, Don, The U.S. Mint and Coinage, Arco Publishing Co., New York, 1966. Tomaska, Rick, The Complete Guide to Franklin Half Dollars, DLRC Press, Virginia Beach, VA, 1997. Vermeule, Cornelius, Numismatic Art in America, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1971. Yeoman, R.S., A Guide Book of United States Coins, 47th Edition, Western Publishing Co., Racine, WI, 1993.

Coin Information Provided Courtesy NGC.