Decent Half Dollar Prices Even When Silver Is High?
By Mark Benvenuto
It may seem hard to believe, but even during times when precious metals are listed in the commodities
market with ridiculous prices, when silver and gold seem to be rather unobtainable, there are sometimes high end coins that
you can add to a collection for less than the proverbial king’s ransom. Let’s
focus first on the Franklin half dollars, and see what we might be able to add to a growing collection. Then we can take a gander around at some of their near neighbors as well.
The Franklin halves are the last series of fifty-cent
pieces that was made entirely of 90% silver, no matter the date or mint mark. Rather
routinely, collectors look at Franklin halves when the price tags for Walking Liberty halves go through the roof. The Franklins always seem to be in the shadow – but that’s a
good thing, as far as we are concerned.
Even though it’s quite logical to examine a series from beginning to end, in this case, let’s do it in
reverse. We’ll see the reason in a moment.
The last of the Franklins are the 1963’s. Minted in Philadelphia and Denver, both of these are extremely common coins, with over 25 million and 67 million produced,
respectively. There were proofs produced in Philly that year – over 3 million
of them, actually. The first good news then that we have to report is that a
1963 Franklin half listed with the grade of PF-65 only costs $35 as of this writing.
That’s really downright amazing when you think about it. Any coin
at the MS-65 or PF-65 level is going to be a gorgeous piece to look at, and to be able to land one containing 0.36169 ounces
of silver for less than $50 is quite a coup. If you can find one at a local or
regional show, by all means, grab it.
Now, the 1963 isn’t the only proof in the Franklin
series, and depending on the condition in which you find it, it may not even be the least expensive. One wonderful finding within the Franklin
series is that there are plenty of proofs (not every year, but almost), and many of them were made in large enough quantities
that they are quite affordable today. All of the proofs that were minted in the
1960’s certainly qualify, which means there are three more PF-65s that you can find with roughly the same price tag
attached to them as that ’63.
Now, before we march backwards farther in time, and look at every proof we might want to gather up, a word might be
in order about what are called “full bell line” or “FBL” examples of Franklin halves. For those who have not delved
into the series before, quite a large number of Franklins do not show a Liberty
Bell on the reverse that has each and every line of the bell
clearly delineated from the others. Some aficionados consider the scarcer, full
bell line specimen to be worth more, and thus the price tags have risen over the years.
That is the reason why a 1960 proof, listed as PF-65, might cost $45, while the same coin that is not proof, but that
is designated MS-65FBL costs more like $350. It can be fun to search out those
elusive FBL examples, but for most of us it’s too costly an endeavor to pursue.
Keeping away from the FBL coins, and moving back farther into the Franklin
series, it doesn’t take long to realize that the prices for the proof specimens do begin to rise, but they don’t
ever reach astronomical heights. The latter half of the 1950’s proves that
that decade ended with a glorious bang, at least when it comes to the prices of these high end coins. There is a scarce variety within the 1956 proofs that currently costs a few hundred dollars, but the more
common variety, as well as all the proofs from 1956 through and including 1959 cost much less.
Going back farther into the Franklin half dollar proofs,
we find that the prices do continue to rise. But that’s simply because
the number of proofs drops off so dramatically. It was 1957 that saw the first
proof mintage total go over one million coins. It was 1953 that saw the first
proof mintage total top six figures, with 128,800 to be precise. That’s
a big drop for us – or rather, it was a big ramping up of production in just a few years, for the folks at the Mint.
The result of this big change in the output of Franklin
half dollar proofs is that the first four a person can obtain – the 1950, the ’51, the ’52, and the ’53
– are usually too expensive to add to a collection, at least for the collector of limited means. This doesn’t make those dates completely off limits. For
example, the 1950 half costs $110 in MS-65, and a mere $25 in MS-60, both of which are great prices. It’s just that the proofs for the date are now scarce enough that they’ve become expensive.
When you look date by date through the Franklin halves and see prices that are this reasonable, even when the price
of silver metal is pretty high at the close of the day’s trading, you can’t help but wonder about the prices of
a few other halves. Honestly, a person just has to look at the Walking Liberty halves quickly, to see if there’s one or two to add.
The good news on the Walking Liberty half dollar front:
some of the later dates ring in at reasonable prices in the lower grades of mint state, comparable to our Franklins. The bad news:
there were only proofs from 1936 to 1942, and they are all quite expensive.
But when speaking of the Franklin halves, we did say
we’d have a, “gander around at some of their near neighbors,” which means we can take an equally quick look
at the one silver half dollar bearing President Kennedy’s image, the 1964.
If you are the true frugal collector, if you are the person who takes pride in being called a cheapskate by your pals,
well, the 1964 Kennedy half in PF-65 is for you. Almost 4 million were minted,
and they cost about $15 today. Take pride when you land one of these, because
you can’t do better than that.
So, even when precious metals are all trading as if they are as rare as rare can be, there are some good deals to be
had among the silver half dollars of the past seventy years or so. Why not have
some fun and go get one or two for yourself?
