Franklin Half Dollar Values: The 1948-1963 Series

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The Franklin half at a glance

The Franklin half dollar is a 50 cent United States coin struck by the Mint from 1948 through 1963. Every business strike in the series is 90 percent silver. It replaced the Walking Liberty half dollar in 1948 and was itself replaced by the Kennedy half dollar starting in 1964, per the Wikipedia entry on the series.

The coin was proposed by Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross, who had long admired Benjamin Franklin and wanted him depicted on United States coinage. In 1947 she instructed her chief engraver, John R. Sinnock, to prepare designs for a Franklin half dollar. Sinnock died before the work was complete, and the reverse was finished by his successor, Gilroy Roberts.

Just under 498 million Franklin halves were struck across all three mints between 1948 and 1963, including proof coins, per the same source. That production level is why circulated Franklins turn up regularly in estate lots, inherited safe-deposit boxes, and old coin jars across the country.

The Sinnock design and the Liberty Bell reverse

The obverse shows a right-facing portrait of Benjamin Franklin, based on a bust by Jean-Antoine Houdon. The word LIBERTY runs across the top of the coin, with IN GOD WE TRUST below the portrait and the date at the lower right. Sinnock's initials JRS appear on the lower cutoff of the shoulder.

The reverse shows the Liberty Bell, with a small eagle placed to the right. The eagle was not part of Sinnock's original concept. Federal statute at the time required that half dollars, quarters, and dollars carry the figure of an eagle, so the small bird was added to satisfy the law without dominating the design.

The Liberty Bell on the reverse is the source of the Full Bell Lines designation used by third-party grading services today. The seven parallel lines that make up the bottom of the bell are shallow and easily lost in an average strike. A coin that shows them fully separated is comparatively scarce and priced accordingly. More on that below.

Mint marks and where to find them

Three United States Mint facilities struck Franklin halves. Philadelphia strikes carry no mint mark. Denver strikes carry a D. San Francisco strikes carry an S.

Unlike the Walking Liberty series that came before, the Franklin mint mark position never moved. It sits on the reverse for the entire run, above the yoke of the Liberty Bell and below the letter E in STATES. That is the only spot to check.

The San Francisco Mint closed in 1955 and did not reopen until 1965, so no Franklin half dollar carries an S mint mark after 1954. Denver went two years without striking any halves at all, in 1955 and 1956, because demand was low.

Verified physical specifications

The table below sets out the specifications of the Franklin half dollar as recorded in the Wikipedia summary of United States Mint data. Any coin sold as a Franklin that fails these numbers is a counterfeit, a novelty piece, a damaged planchet, or a coin from a different series.

How to identify a Franklin half in 60 seconds

The Franklin half is one of the easier US silver coins to identify: the design is unambiguous and the specifications are tight. The five checks below will get most readers from an unfamiliar coin to a confident yes or no.

1. Read the obverse. A Franklin half shows a right-facing bust of Benjamin Franklin, with LIBERTY across the top, IN GOD WE TRUST below the portrait, and the date at the lower right.
2. Read the reverse. The reverse shows the Liberty Bell with a small eagle to the right. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA runs across the top and HALF DOLLAR runs across the bottom. E PLURIBUS UNUM sits above the bell.
3. Check the date. A genuine Franklin half is dated between 1948 and 1963. Any other date is not a business-strike Franklin half from the original series.
4. Check the weight and diameter. A jewelry scale accurate to 0.01 g and a caliper give a fast confirmation. A genuine coin weighs 12.50 grams and measures about 30.61 mm across, with a reeded edge.
5. Locate the mint mark. Turn the coin to the reverse and look above the yoke of the Liberty Bell, just below the letter E in STATES. A D indicates Denver, an S indicates San Francisco, and no mark indicates Philadelphia.

Live melt-value calculator

Enter today's silver spot price and the number of coins you have. The tool uses the verified 0.36169 troy ounces of silver per Franklin half. The output is a floor: the raw metal value at spot, before any dealer buy spread or collector premium.

Melt-floor math on a common-date Franklin

Semi-key dates: 1949-S, 1953, and 1955

The Franklin series has no true rarities. According to the Wikipedia entry, no Franklin half dollar is rare today because even the low-mintage dates were widely saved from circulation. What the series does have is a small group of semi-key dates that command consistent premiums over the common-date melt floor.

The semi-key dates by circulation mintage are the 1948, 1949-S, 1953, and 1955. The 1953 business strike from Philadelphia had a circulation mintage of just 2,668,120 pieces and the 1955 business strike came in even lower at 2,498,181 pieces, per the mintage table in the Wikipedia article. Those two dates are the softest supply spots in the series.

The 1949-S is a first-year San Francisco strike that dealers and collectors watch closely in mint state. The 1948 first-year Philadelphia issue attracts collectors of first-year type coins. None of these dates is scarce in circulated grades, but sharp uncirculated examples with strong strikes and clean surfaces carry solid premiums.

We are not quoting specific dollar figures on this page for any of these dates. A fair price depends on the exact grade, on the third-party grading service that certified the coin, on the presence or absence of the Full Bell Lines designation, and on the day of the sale. Readers who need a live comparable should check the completed-listing filter on a major auction platform or ask a coin dealer to pull current wholesale price sheets.

The 1955 Bugs Bunny die-clash variety

The most widely known Franklin half variety is the 1955 Bugs Bunny. According to the Wikipedia entry, the marking was caused by a die clash between an obverse die and a reverse die. When the two dies came together without a planchet, the impact of the eagle's wing feathers on the obverse die left a raised mark outside Franklin's mouth that some observers thought resembled buck teeth.

The variety only exists on 1955 Philadelphia strikes. It is not a rarity in the strict sense, but it is a popular collector item because the story is memorable and the diagnostic mark is visible without a loupe once you know where to look.

Any raw 1955 half offered at a Bugs Bunny premium should be verified against side-by-side reference photos from a numismatic reference or authenticated by an established third-party grading service. The clash mark is imitated on occasion by pieces tooled outside the mint, and the raw variety is easy to confuse with normal die wear if the buyer has not seen a genuine Bugs Bunny before.

Full Bell Lines and why the FBL designation matters

Full Bell Lines is the strike-quality designation that drives premiums across almost the entire Franklin series. Per the Wikipedia summary of the coin, a Franklin qualifies as FBL when two conditions are met at the same time.

First, the seven parallel lines that make up the bottom of the Liberty Bell on the reverse must be fully visible. Second, the three wisps of hair to the right of Franklin's ear on the obverse must fully show, and not blend together.

Both conditions have to be met at the same coin. A reverse with all seven lines but a mushy obverse hair detail does not qualify. A crisp obverse with weak lower bell lines does not qualify either. That is why FBL examples in high mint state grades are comparatively scarce, even among dates that had large production runs.

The premium for an FBL designation on a certified high-grade Franklin can be a large multiple of the same date and grade without FBL. That is where the money in the Franklin series really sits. A common date 1962 in a certified MS-65 FBL slab can sell for many times what the same date and grade sells for without the FBL notation.

Full Bell Lines is a strike criterion, not a preservation criterion. A coin with strong strike quality can still be knocked out of a high grade by contact marks or hairlines. The two dimensions, strike and preservation, combine to set the certified grade and the FBL notation independently.

Proof coins and cameo strikes from 1950

Proof Franklin half dollars were struck at the Philadelphia Mint beginning in 1950, per the Wikipedia entry on the series. Proofs were sold to collectors in yearly proof sets and were not intended for circulation. A proof coin shows mirror-like fields and sharply defined design details from specially prepared dies and planchets.

A subset of these proofs are known as cameo proofs. They show a strong frosted contrast between the design elements and the mirror fields. Cameo proofs were struck in small numbers early in a die's life and command a premium over normal proof strikes. A deep cameo designation carries an even higher premium.

Not every 1950 to 1963 proof set qualifies as cameo. Most proofs from the era were struck late enough in a die's life that the frost had worn off. A cameo or deep cameo grade from an established third-party service is a specific certification, not a general description.

What drives collectible value above melt

A worn common-date Franklin half typically trades at or near its silver melt floor. A handful of factors move a specific coin above that floor. The list below explains what a serious buyer or an established grading service is actually looking at.

Preservation grade is the largest lever. A common-date circulated Franklin trades near melt regardless of mint. A sharp, original, uncirculated coin certified at MS-64 or MS-65 already trades for a modest multiple of melt. Superb gem-grade certified examples at MS-66 or higher carry very strong premiums even for a common date.

Full Bell Lines is the second lever, and for Franklins it is often the biggest single lever. Two coins of the same date at the same numeric grade can trade at very different prices when one carries the FBL notation and the other does not.

Date and mint mark scarcity matter but less than in most other series. The semi-key 1949-S, 1953, and 1955 dates attract steady collector demand, especially in mint state. The 1948 and 1949-S carry first-year and low-mintage interest respectively.

Variety status can add a premium. The 1955 Bugs Bunny die clash is the most famous variety. A handful of minor doubled-die and repunched-mint-mark varieties exist for specific dates and are cataloged in reference works, but none of them approach the Bugs Bunny in general recognition.

Originality and eye appeal are the final gate. A cleaned, dipped, or wiped coin will be assigned a details grade by an independent third-party grader, which typically cuts value against an original coin at the same technical grade. Attractive natural toning can raise value; harsh cleaning almost always lowers it.

Counterfeits, altered coins, and cleaning

The Franklin half is faked less often than a Morgan silver dollar or an early gold coin, but a few problem patterns exist and every reader should know them before buying.

Cast counterfeits of the 1953 and the 1955 Bugs Bunny variety turn up from time to time. These pieces often show soft details, incorrect weight, a seam along the reeded edge, or the wrong number of reeds. A jewelry scale is the fastest first check: any Franklin half that does not weigh 12.50 grams is not a genuine business strike.

Altered mint marks are a second pattern to watch. A common alteration attempts to turn a Philadelphia coin into a Denver or San Francisco example by tooling a D or S onto the reverse above the yoke of the bell. Any 1949-S or 1953-D sold raw at a premium price should carry certification from an established independent third-party grading service before a serious purchase.

Cleaned coins are the most common condition problem across the whole series. A wiped, dipped, or polished Franklin will be graded as details by an independent grader. That typically cuts value by half or more against an original piece at the same numeric grade. A high-luster coin with fine hairline scratches under a loupe is a warning sign.

Faked Full Bell Lines is a less common but real problem. A coin can be tooled on the bell lines to try to bring up definition after the strike. A skilled grader spots this because the tooled lines have a different surface texture from struck detail. Any coin marketed as FBL at a premium should carry a Full Bell Lines notation from an established third-party service on the label.

Should you send your Franklin to be graded?

Third-party grading has a fee that ranges from a few tens of dollars per coin at the lowest service tier to well over a hundred dollars per coin at the highest. That fee scales with declared value and turnaround time. It is worth the cost for some Franklins and it is a waste of money for others.

Grading makes sense for a candidate uncirculated coin that looks like it might qualify for MS-64 or higher, especially if it also looks like it might carry the Full Bell Lines designation. A common-date MS-65 FBL Franklin often sells for a strong multiple of the same date and grade without the FBL notation, which more than pays for the grading fee.

Grading also makes sense for any 1949-S, 1953, or 1955 that appears uncirculated, for any candidate 1955 Bugs Bunny variety, and for any proof that appears to have strong cameo contrast. A certified label sets the coin's market value in a way a verbal appraisal cannot.

Grading does not make sense for a worn common-date Franklin. The fee will usually exceed the retail value of the coin. That is true even for a coin that grades cleanly as extremely fine or about uncirculated, because the buyer market for circulated Franklins is driven by melt value plus a small collector bump.

What your Franklin half is probably not

Franklin half dollar FAQ

By the Harry’s Coins Editorial team. Last reviewed August 2026.