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- Product ID: 46324
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The Franklin Half Dollar was minted from 1948 to 1963 and is mainly popular for its 90% silver content. The Denver Mint minted millions upon millions of coins, which was the norm for the Franklin. Due to the half dollar's average mintage being high, collectors and investors today enjoy the Franklin for its 90% silver content. On the obverse, an astute Benjamin Franklin is pictured, with the date of mintage right under his chin. The reverse contains the infamously cracked Liberty Bell with the coin's legal tender value. The Denver Mint mint-marked its Franklins on the reverse, underneath the bell. The 1962-D Franklin Half Dollar is the second to last year for the Franklin Half Dollar and is in almost uncirculated condition.
While the Mint Director at the time, Nellie Tayloe Ross, was a strong admirer of Benjamin Franklin, she knew her favorite Founding Father wasn't a fan of placing portraits on coins. Benjamin Franklin believed coins should exhibit a proverb, something for the coin holder to ponder when observing the currency. In her defense of placing Franklin on the next half dollar, Ross reminded numismatists that Franklin was only aware of the living royalty portraits and that having a Founding Father on the coin would deem honorable by Franklin. Throughout his career, Franklin also made it clear how he viewed the eagle as a scavenger and not the symbolic figure of power everyone else admired about the bird of prey. He is quoted to have wanted the wild turkey to be the national bird, instead of the eagle, since he was a very practical man. Obviously, despite what the late Founding Father may have thought, Ross continued with the production of the Franklin Half Dollar.