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With the largest mintage in the collection, the Denver Mint produced the final Franklin Half Dollar with a bang. A whopping 67 million coins were minted and are very easy to locate in bulk. Nellie Tayloe Ross greatly admired Franklin but was also aware of his distaste for portraits on US currency. In the 1940's, the Mint Director, was legally allowed to change the design of the half dollar, since the Walking Liberty had been in circulation for over 25 years. The reverse depicts an aging Liberty Bell, with the coin's legal tender value, which wasn't approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. The obverse features the balding Founding Father, complete with his round head and reading spectacles.
Franklin once thought US coins should contain Proverbs, so the coin holder would have something to contemplate while looking upon the coin. Ross approached Mint Engraver, John R. Sinnock, the create a design of the Founding Father. At the turn of World War II, Sinnock had designed a commemorative of Franklin, which was never used. This previous design was used to help design the Franklin Half Dollar. Benjamin Franklin is a key leader in American history and mostly known for his technological advances when it came to electricity and the modern home. But this Founding Father was a jack of all trades and a scientist was only one of them. Franklin was also a renowned polymath, author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. His accomplishments earned him a lot of public attention but it wouldn't be until well after his death a Mint Director would want his portrait on US coinage.