For Gilbert, Lucy, JMoore, and all other Franklin Freaks: What FBL Means According to the Gurus

FC57Coins

After reviewing the second edition of the Complete Guide to Franklin Dollars, I've taken the liberty to extract a few excerpts that will hopefully help our fellow Franklin Freaks best judge FBL standards. You will note that there's the eentsiest bit of waffling in each of the definitions to allow for marginal or variant situations, but in all they pretty much help determine what it is that FBL coins should possess. Hope this helps address the matter.

Frank

From Rick Tomaska's Complete Guide To Franklin Half Dollars - Second Edition:

RICK TOMASKA’S VIEW:

…The purpose is to designate a coin that comes closest to exhibiting all the design detail originally intended for the coin. An FBL Franklin should therefore possess a full or nearly full strike, on all portions of the coin, including the two sets of bell lines on the reverse. The bell lines need not urn right up to the crack in the Liberty Bell, but should come to within about 1/64th of an inch. Occasionally, on certain “S” mint coins with complete bell lines, the bell lines will fade and be very weak in their upper right quadrant. To qualify as an FBL the lines should be fairly sharply defined (not necessarily bold) on all portions.

Some coins may possess full bell lines, but be very softly struck on other portions of the bell, or on Franklin’s bust on the obverse. A full bell line coin should also exhibit at least some of the hair detail between Franklin’s ear and cheek, though the hair curls need not be defined into three parts, as on a fully struck coin…

RICK MONTGOMERY’S VIEW (Formerly PCGS):

When the bottom set of lines across the Liberty Bell is complete and uninterrupted, a circulation strike (non-proof) Mint state 60 or better Franklin half dollar receives the designation Full Bell Lines (FBL). If these lines are obscured by weakness of strike, contact marks, planchet defects or othero reasons, the coin will not receive the FBL designation.

A few light marks across the bottom of the bell lines will not prevent a coin from receiving an FBL designation, as long as these marks do not interrupt the continuity of these bell lines.

Slight incompleteness of the bell lines immediately to the left or right of the crack that traverses the bell will not in itself prevent a coin from receiving the FBL designation.

DAVID W. LANGE’S VIEW (NGC):

Of greatest importance to collectors of Mint State Franklin Half Dollars is, of course, the designation FBL for full bell lines. It is the two clusters of parallel lines near the bottom of the Liberty Bell that determine whether a coin can be designated as having FBL. NGC’s standard for declaring that a Franklin Half has full bell lines is in lines with that generally accepted in the coin market. Specifically, all those lines must be visible along their entire lengths to within a short distance to the left and right of the bell’s crack. Whether from weak striking or abrasions, no more than a couple of small interruptions in the lines are permitted, except as noted above with repect to the bell’s crack.

ClausUrch

Interesting; Rick Tomaska seems to be a bit more harsh in his grading than PCGS and NGC!



<< <i>Some coins may possess full bell lines, but be very softly struck on other portions of the bell, or on Franklin’s bust on the obverse. A full bell line coin should also exhibit at least some of the hair detail between Franklin’s ear and cheek, though the hair curls need not be defined into three parts, as on a fully struck coin… >>



Either grading service says nothing about the obverse hair lines when it comes to the full bell designation.

JMOORE

Frank,

Good information.

Thanks,

FC57Coins

<< <i>Either grading service says nothing about the obverse hair lines when it comes to the full bell designation >>



I think the toughest definition is NGC's, though each one gives themselves a little bit of latitude. As for the hair detail, I think the reason that's somewhat a secondary issue is that you have to take into account the degradation of the master die toward the late 50's. By that time the die was showing very little hair detail, even on killer coins. Compare the two coins below - even though the 48 is an MS66FBL and the 59D is an MS65FBL, the amount of detail shown on the orignal strike is dramatically different than the detail in the last year before the die was reworked.

Frank

LucyBop

I say we get the three of these cats in a room with me and we'll all come to some kind of agreement!

FC57Coins

Either that or you'll all get drunk and silly - right?

Gilbert

NGC’s standard for declaring that a Franklin Half has full bell lines is in lines with that generally accepted in the coin market.

I guess this statement is the greatest source of conflict between the two services. When I asked D. Hall on the Q&A forum if and why PCGS only evaluated the bottom three lines, he seemed to think the PCGS standard is the generally accepted standard. I wonder if his "don't expect and changes" statement will remain the PCGS position. I realize that some years or mint issues will have slim to none FBLs per NGC, but, I "think" I can at least have a very good idea what the reverse of an NGC FBL coin will look like, as opposed to PCGS, which may exhibit 3 full lines or 7 full lines; hardly definitive or even descriptive. How can one consider THAT a standard?

FC57Coins

Gilbert:

In my travels of seeing bunches of Franklins I agree with you that only those with fully struck bell lines are the choicest specimens. I've only seen 1 PCGS graded MS65FBL where this wasn't true, and it happened to be a 54S. This was just a plain weird example where the bottom lines were perfect, and the top lines were almost completely gone. Aside from that I think that if the bottom lines don't show up well, by default the top lines tend to have problems, and that's what I think PCGS relies on. Personally over the years, I've favored PCGS graded Franklins because their overall quality has been better in my experience than NGC's - although of late I would say that they're up to par. It just boils down to once again evaluating the entire coin and not relying just on the grading service's point of view.

Frank

FC57Coins

Since I see a lot of newbies on the boards I thought I'd dust this thread off and see if there's any further interest in it.

Frank

MrKelso

I printed out your post and stuck it in a book of notes i keep on all my Curns. Thanks for the Post Frank.

mdwoods

Good timing Frank. I am thinking of building a Franklin set and your provided info will be most useful. Thanks. mdwoods.

michael

a monster great thread!!

ttt


michael

michael

In my travels of seeing bunches of Franklins I agree with you that only those with fully struck bell lines are the choicest specimens. I've only seen 1 PCGS graded MS65FBL where this wasn't true, and it happened to be a 54S. This was just a plain weird example where the bottom lines were perfect, and the top lines were almost completely gone. Aside from that I think that if the bottom lines don't show up well, by default the top lines tend to have problems, and that's what I think PCGS relies on. Personally over the years, I've favored PCGS graded Franklins because their overall quality has been better in my experience than NGC's - although of late I would say that they're up to par. It just boils down to once again evaluating the entire coin and not relying just on the grading service's point of view.

Frank


as per the above you sum it up well, frank!!



michael