Coins – October 2019

16 COINSOCTOBER 2019

Big Silver Type Sets

ByMarkBenvenuto

C

OLLECTING ONE or

more series within United

States coinage can be a great

deal of fun, as we dive into all the details

of a particular series. If there is a frus-

tration to such an endeavor, it is prob-

ably any key dates or mint marks. A

rare coin is always going to be precisely

that – rare – and thus will be the stum-

bling block to completing a set. One

way around that is to focus on collecting

type sets, composed of one prime exam-

ple of a coin from several similar series.

Let’s take a look at assembling two truly

handsome type sets, those of the bigger

United States silver issues.

First, The Half Dollars

Our fifty-cent coin has hardly been

a work horse coin, at least not for the

past fifty years or so. The Mint has kept

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Images Courtesy of Heritage Auctions

producing them, and virtually every

store or business still takes them. But

there’s no place for them in vending

machines, and often no set place for

them in a cashier’s change drawer.

Strangely, this lack of everyday use

means there are still some very good

looking half dollars out there for the

interested collector.

Those of us who want to go for

just the minimum when it comes to a

type coin from the Kennedy half dollar

series has a wealth of proofs from

which to choose. Plus, since 1992,

there has been the option of proofs that

are made of silver, as well as those

made from the copper-nickel combina-

tion that has been used for decades.

The very good news when it comes

to Kennedy half dollars is that all but

one of them are remarkably inexpen-

sive. You’ll find that $25 goes a long

way to getting a decent looking speci-

men in a high end mint state or proof

grade. The one piece that is not cheap is

arguably not a Kennedy half either – the

2014-W gold half dollar. Issued in gold

as a commemoration of fifty years of the

Kennedy half dollar design, this version

was actually produced in a rather large

number – 73,772, to be exact – and

made quite a hit when it was released.

Since it is gold, it’s never going to be

cheap. Since it is still in the collector’s

eye, at least among aficionados, one

of these will cost about $900. That’s a

hefty price tag, and we can be forgiven

for starting our fifty-cent piece type

collection on some less expensive note.

Moving back in time, the Franklin

half dollar series comes next, and has

no truly scarce or rare coins within the

series, which means it’s easy to grab

an eye catching example for any grow-

ing collection. Also, the Franklins saw

proof coins issued almost every year of

the series. That means we’ll have some

excellent pieces from which to choose,

especially in the later years. You see,

the Franklin halves were issued when

the Mint reinvigorated its proof coin-

age program in 1950, and the program

grew big enough that over one million

proof sets were issued in 1957. The

proofs of 1961, and 1962, as well as

1963 are particularly common, each

having over 3 million to their official

tallies. When it comes to a high-end

Franklin, we might have to spend more

than the $25 we just mentioned for a

Kennedy half, but not all that much

more. This is another easy buy for us.

Moving back to the Walking Liberty

halves, we wander into one of the most

heavily collected series of United States

silver coins there is. Simply put: folks

love ‘em! Very high grade pieces, the

real crème de la crème of the mint state

coins, cross the auction block for impres-

sive figures. For those of us with less

than a bucket of spare money, it’s proba-

bly worth looking at those common dates

towards the end of the series. Several

dates and mint marks saw mintages far

above 10 million, and they are not all that

expensive. Something like $100 - $

can be the buy-in for one of the more

common dates in a mid-level mint state.

Since we mentioned proofs for both

of the earlier series, it’s only fair to

mention them here as well. For a few

years of the Walking Liberty halves,

there were proofs produced. The high-

est number was the 1942, with 21,

to its tally. This makes them pretty

rare today. Some price lists do claim

these are worth about $500 in a grade

like PF-64. But it’s probably not wise

to bet on that. Coins like this usually

go at auction, which means a couple

of hungry bidders can run the price up

beyond what any list proclaims.

Moving back to the Barber half

dollars, we get to a series that has plenty

of common dates and mint marks, but

that also has some pretty high prices,

at least compared to what we have seen

before. That’s generally just a symptom

of these being old enough that they are

true classics. The common dates all

have mintages in the low millions, yet

even low end mint state examples cost

about $600. For any of us who are inter-

ested in the proofs – of which there are a

few for every year – well, we will have

to ante up $1,100 to sit and bid in that

card game. For those of us who would

like a Barber at a decent price, the $

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Classic and Modern