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Question about Frankies
GaCoinGuy
Posts: 2,756 ✭✭✭✭
What is the "Official" definition of FBL? Both sets of lines full or just the bottom lines?
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GaCoinGuy
Posts: 2,756 ✭✭✭✭
GaCoinGuy
Posts: 2,756 ✭✭✭✭
GaCoinGuy
Posts: 2,756 ✭✭✭✭
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A while back I posted this on the subject:
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.