Item of the Week: 1948 Philly Franklin half dollar has potential
First-year U.S. coin designs can become instant rarities—or remain surprisingly affordable despite low mintages. The 1948 Franklin half dollar offers an intriguing example.
The first year of a new coin design seems to be black and white: either it is as common as any coin of the type, or it is scarce and expensive. There seems to be very little middle ground.
Over the years, we have seen the Susan B. Anthony dollar with a first-year mintage at three facilities far in excess of the mintages that followed. The first Eisenhower dollar mintages were also on the high side.
First-year mintages are low in many instances, with 1916 a good example. The 1916-D Mercury dime had a mintage of just 264,000, while the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter was at 52,000 pieces, one of the lowest quarter mintages for the entire century.
The new 1932 Washington quarter had a similar story, with the 1932-D and 1932-S being the lowest mintage quarters for the design, while the Philadelphia 1932 mintage was unusually low for that mint. The factor that keeps many first-year, new-design coins from having astronomical prices is that many times more people save them. We’ve seen it with the 50-states quarters and Sacagawea dollar, and it has been that way for most of our history. As a result, there are more 1916- D Mercury dimes, 1916 quarters, and 1909-S VDB Lincoln cents than we might expect.
The 1948 Franklin half dollar was a reflection of its times. The United States produced heavy coinage in all denominations except silver dollars during World War II. There was a natural mintage decrease when the war ended.
In 1943, the mintage of half dollars in Philadelphia had been more than 53 million pieces. It decreased to about 31 million in 1945, 12 million in 1946, and just over four million in 1947.
As a result, the 3,006,814 mintage of the 1948 Franklin half dollar did not stand out as unusual. The mintage rose to more than 5.6 million in 1949 and increased in subsequent years. The case can be made that the Philadelphia 1948 Franklin half dollar was a below-average mintage. It was not unusually low compared to the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter or 1916-D Mercury dime, but it ranks as the fourth-lowest mintage half dollar from Philadelphia since 1948. In fact, there are any number of half dollars of the past 40 years which have a proof mintage close to the entire mintage of 1948 Franklin half dollars.
It is also worth remembering that the 1948 was not viewed as scarce, and it is possible that a number were melted along the way, especially when silver prices reached $50 an ounce. At the time, an uncirculated 1948 might have been saved, but circulated examples were definitely bullion coins.
While the 1948 might be scarcer than many would suspect, its price today still reflects the normal pattern of the first year of a new design being saved by many people. The 1948 is currently priced at $75 in MS-65.
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