Item of the Week: Half remains a top coin of the 20th century
Low mintage and heavy circulation have made the 1921-D Walking Liberty half dollar one of the most desirable U.S. coins of the 20th century.
There are many great 20th-century coins. The list includes things like the 1909-S Indian cent; 1909-S VDB Lincoln; the 1916-D Mercury dime; any number of Barber dimes, quarters, and half dollars; and the 1916 Standing Liberty quarter. To that list of impressive company we should probably add the 1921-D Walking Liberty half dollar.
The 1921-D Walking Liberty half has suffered because it is a half dollar. For most of the 20th century, collectors did not focus on half dollars, as the denomination was too large.
There is no question it is hard to compare coins of different denominations. A low mintage for a cent might equate to an average or not-that-low mintage for a half. The demands for the denominations are different and so, too, are the mintages.
In 1921, all denominations experienced lower-than-average mintages because the Mint was working day and night to create silver dollars. At first, it was Morgan dollars, but late in 1921 the new Peace dollar design was available, and attention turned to Peace dollars. The dollar activity was the last great success of the silver lobby, which had actively promoted coins that happened to be silver since the 1870s. 1921 was the first of a few years where dollars came before everything else.
The half dollar of 1921 probably suffered as much in terms of production as any denomination. You could make a strong case that 1921 half-dollar production from all three facilities was really a token amount. In San Francisco, a total of 548,000 half-dollars were produced.
That would have been a record low for Walking Liberty halves, had Philadelphia not produced just 246,000 that year and Denver just 208,000.
That Denver mintage does not have to be compared to other denominations to conclude that it was low. In fact, no half dollar since that date has been made for circulation with a mintage so low. In most cases, the mintages do not even come close. At 208,000, the 1921-D would be a key proof-only date – but the 1921-D was not a proof.
What makes the whole matter even more interesting is that the 1921-D probably circulated for a long time.
Even if you had been a half-dollar collector in the 1920s, the 1921-D half was just one collecting option. Barber halves were available, and three of those, the 1913, 1914, and 1915, all had even lower mintages than the 1921-D. A host of other Barber halves also had promise. If you wanted coins with potential for price increases, the 1916 quarter had appeared a few years earlier. There were all sorts of ways to spend your money on coins other than the 1921-D half.
The 1921-D has fared well. It has established itself as the key circulated Walking Liberty half date. Its G-4 price is $285 – up from $145 a few years ago.
Where the 1921-D is a problem is in upper circulated grades – the best proof that it circulated heavily. A 1921-D is $470 in VG-8 but jumps to $1,600 in VF- 20 and from there to $3,875 in XF-40. In XF-40 and above, the 1921-D is topped in price by the 1921-S, which had roughly twice the mintage. Perhaps some collectors discovered the 1921-D fairly quickly but allowed 1921-S Walking Liberty halves to continue to circulate.
While it may have lost its No. 1 position in some grades, the 1921-D remains an important Walking Liberty half in every grade. People love the Walking Liberty half and large silver coins. The 1921-D is not likely to soften in price, and will likely always be near the top of the list of desirable 20th-century coins.
Images courtesy Heritage Auctions
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