PART OF A FAMILY COLLECTION.. NOT FORMALLY GRADED... A HIGH MS62+ GRADE IS LIKELY... NO WEAR AND HIGH LUSTER.
1948 D... BEN FRANKLIN .50 SILVER HALF DOLLAR... KEY DATE OF THE COIN... A PERFECT COIN!
In 1948, World War II had given way to an uneasy peace-a "Cold War," as presidential adviser Bernard Baruch so aptly named the new climate of international tension. The year also witnessed the death of baseball legend Babe Ruth, the birth of the State of Israel and, with his presidential election upset of Thomas E. Dewey, a new lease on life in the White House for Harry S Truman.
In 1948, an important change took place in United States coinage as well, when the Franklin half dollar made its debut. Its introduction completed the conversion of U.S. coin designs from allegorical figures to portraits of famous Americans. It also rang down the curtain on an era that many regard as the golden age of U. S. coinage art. The Walking Liberty half dollar, last struck in 1947, was the final precious-metal coin remaining in production from the early 20th-century period that spawned the "Mercury" dime, Standing Liberty quarter and Saint-Gaudens double eagle.
Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross had contemplated a coin honoring Benjamin Franklin ever since seeing a U.S. Mint medal prepared in Franklin's honor in 1933 by John R. Sinnock, the Mint's chief sculptor-engraver. Evidence suggests that Ross might have made the change in the early 1940s, when the half dollar's design, used for the statutory minimum of 25 years, became eligible for replacement. Although escalating production demands occasioned by World War II postponed Ross' plans, she showed her enthusiasm for the project by directing Sinnock to design a Franklin coin on a contingency basis. It would be hard to fault Director Ross for her choice of Ben Franklin as a U.S. coinage subject. Of all the Founding Fathers, Franklin very likely enjoyed the greatest stature among his contemporaries, not only in this country but also abroad. He was justly renowned as a printer, publisher, author, inventor, scientist and diplomat, and he played a pivotal role in helping the colonies gain their independence by securing vital aid from France.
In a speech at the unveiling of the Franklin half dollar, Ross recalled that people had urged her to place Franklin's portrait on the cent because he was identified so closely with the maxim "A penny saved is twopence clear" (often misquoted as "A penny saved is a penny earned"). Ross explained her choice of the half dollar: "You will agree, I believe, that the fifty-cent piece, being larger and of silver, lends itself much better to the production of an impressive effect," she declared.
A GREAT ADDITION TO ANY COLLECTION... OR A GREAT TIME TO START A NEW ONE!
GOOD LUCK!
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