Franklin Half-Dollars
Silver half-dollars
Franklin half-dollars are silver half dollars that offer a pure silver play with the kick of coins, which can pick up premiums in markets with heavy public participation. Franklin half-dollars bear likeness of Benjamin Franklin, hence their names. The reverse carries the image of the Liberty Bell.
Ben Franklin half-dollars are 90% silver and 10% copper. Each coin, when minted, contained 0.36169 ounce of silver. A bag ($1,000 face -- 2,000 coins) of circulated Franklin half-dollars weighs right at 55 pounds on a bathroom scale and will yield 718-720 ounces of silver if smelted. Between 1948 and1963, the U.S. Mint produced approximately 309.4 million Benjamin Franklin half-dollars.
Silver Half-Dollar Market
In the 1970s, investors who bought circulated silver half-dollars received mixes of Franklin, Kennedy, and Walking Liberty designs, but mostly Franklin and Kennedy coins. Generally, bags of silver half-dollars carried no premiums over dimes and quarters, as all pre-1965 U.S. 90% silver coins were abundant.
By the 1980s, the smelting of 90% coins became commonplace. Still, bags of 90% silver coins were plentiful. Yet following the 1980s melt, silver half-dollars sometimes picked up premiums over dimes and quarters.
During the 1990s, after a decade of heavy smelting of 90% coins, silver half-dollars often sold at premiums to dimes and quarters. When silver half-dollars didn't sell at premiums to dimes and quarters in '90s, it was during periods of little interest in silver, such as in the early 1990s before silver enjoyed a run-up.
Silver Half-Dollar Premiums
Y2K buying in 1999 put premiums on all 90% silver coins, and silver half-dollars sold at solid premiums over dimes and quarters. However, during the Y2K wash-out in 2000 and early 2001, when people who had bought in 1999 began dumping, silver half-dollars did not carry premiums.
People who bought because of Y2K did so because they feared a collapse of the world's economy, not because of silver's supply/demand fundamentals or because they knew the dangers of paper money and wanted an alternative. So, when Y2K became a nonevent, 90% silver coins poured into the market. That selling, however, was short lived.
By 2001, silver half-dollars began picking up premiums over dimes and quarters. By summer 2002, a strong demand for silver half-dollars caused them to be separated into bags of Franklin, Kennedy, and Walking Liberty silver half-dollars. Walking Liberty silver half-dollars picked up the largest premiums followed by the Franklin half-dollars, and then the '64 Kennedy half-dollars.
Basically, investors who buy bags of junk U.S. 90% silver coins are making silver bullion investments. However, certain types of 90% silver coins have the potential to pick up premiums when the public comes heavily to the silver market. Franklin half-dollars are among those special coins.
Franklin Half-Dollars are unique
Ben Franklin half-dollars are unique because they were minted using only 90% silver. This is true also for Walking Liberty silver half-dollars and Mercury dimes. In contrast, Roosevelt dimes and Washington quarters have been turned out with a 90% alloy (pre-1965 dates) and with a cupro-nickel alloy (1965 to current dates). Kennedy silver half-dollars have been minted with three alloys: 90% silver for the 1964 coins, 40% silver for the 1965-1969 dates, and a cupro-nickel alloy since 1970.
Because Franklin half-dollars were minted with only 90% silver, you do not have to look at their dates to know that they are 90% silver. That is one reason Franklin half-dollars and Mercury dimes carry premiums over other circulated 90% coins. Walking Liberty half-dollars carry still higher premiums because of the popular Walking Liberty design on the front and because they are in short supply.
