1
139
bid online at
(800) 978-COIN (2646)
|
Session Two - Sunday, June 1, 2014 Approx 12:00 PM
Fr ank l i n Ha l f Do l l a r s
T
HE
F
INEST
G
RADED
F
RANKLIN
H
ALF
D
OLLAR
Enlargement
870
1948
.
NGC graded MS-68 Full Bell Lines. Star
. Wonderful original toning on both sides. The best we have ever seen. The only Franklin
Half ever graded this high. On the cover of Whitman Franklin/Kennedy book, second edition.
Pop 1; none finer at NGC.
Designed by John R. Sinnock. According to Donald Taxay’s studies of this subject, “It is said that Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross envisioned a
Benjamin Franklin coin after the issue of Sinnock’s Franklin medal in 1933. It was not, however, until 1948, after four presidential portraits had
been adopted on the coinage, that the Director asked Sinnock to design a Franklin half dollar. Sinnock modified his earlier profile, and adopted
for the reverse of the coin the Liberty bell device on his 1926 U.S.A. sesquicentennial half dollar. To meet legal requirements, a diminutive
eagle was placed to the right of the bell.”
The Commission on Fine Arts objected to the small eagle, but “possibly in deference to Sinnock the Commission’s ideas were rejected, and
their records show nothing further concerning the Franklin half dollar.”
This was Sinnock’s last work. At the request of Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross, he completed the obverse and reverse models only a few
weeks before his death (May 1947). The half-dollar design was legally changeable any time after July 1, 1941, but escalated wartime
demands for coins occasioned the delay.
Estimated Value ................................................................................................................................................................... $50,000-UP
871
1948
.
PCGS graded MS-65 Full Bell Lines
. Light even ton-
ing. (
PCGS # 86651
)
Estimated Value ....................................................... $80 - 90
872
1949-D
.
PCGS graded MS-66 Full Bell Lines
. Lovely natural
toning. Highly lustrous with the shimmering mint frost D-mint
Franklin coinage is so well known for. Mathematically exact
standards seen in the sharp devices, including all bell lines.
Pop
37; 3 finer in 67+
. (
PCGS # 86654
)
Estimated Value ..............................................$2,500 - 2,700
