In which years were Franklins particularly well struck?

dan1ecu

In terms of hair detail, what dates are good for Franklins? Are the grading services more forgiving of a weak strike on dates that are typically weakly struck?

Dan

LucyBop

48 and 49...and the awesome 51d!!!

I think the 51d is the boldest strike I have seen! Check out this hammered 51d that I had graded from a Raw coin!
Bell lines that can cut and a Pass n Stow that jumps off of the coin!




I believe the grading services take the years that are known for a weak strike into account.....

They know the difference between a weak strike and wear.....

LucyBop

The San Francisco mints are well known for their weak strikes, making these coins in FBL scarce, particularly the 53s.....

Often the lettering around these softly struck coins is very mushy and almost blends into the fields..... Some bodly struck examples can be found with FBL, but these are extremely scarce and rare....

Also, as the 50s progressed, the condition of the master die deteriated, and much of the detail in the obverse/reverse was lost..

this is shown through the progression of the 50s... a 59 frankie will appear softly struck, but again, this is due to the state of the master die...

in 1960, the master die was re-worked, but the cats at the mint didn't do a good job on the reverse dies, make FBL in 60s issues scarce as well..... particularly the philly mint, and these coins in GEM FBL are extremely scarce....

I don't care what the pop numbers say, try finding a 63p FBL in GEM.........

I never did and had a ms64fbl example in my high ranking reg set........

islemangu

what a strike never seen one that sharp...

eisq222

WOW.......... A FULLY STRUCK FRANKIE.......VERY NICE !!!!!!

foodude

I don't care what the pop numbers say, try finding a 63p FBL in GEM.........

I agree that is a tough one. It was the last coin I obtained for my set to be at least 65FBL. It became available when one of the top 10 sets was broken up.

MadMonk

63-P is tough, but I wonder if some of the scarcity can be attributed to the series not really being very popular i.e., not a classic, more modern, you know, all the things that people use to argue that the series is under rated.
So there are a lot still in rolls, hordes, etc?

FC57Coins

Particularly well struck Franklins would include:

1948P
1949P
1949D
1951D
1952D
1953D
1954D

To me these dates hold the most well struck specimens, although the problem with the 49D through 54D run is that while they were well struck, they also had an inordinate amount of bag marks. Although the 48D was the first year of issue, I'd say only about 50% of them were not full bell line, so I'm discounting that issue.

In 1960 the master die was re-worked, and the Franklin half was given a fresh makeover. However, the bell lines were not engraved as deeply as they were in 1948, therefore, you have less FBL coins, because once the dies started deteriorating, it seemed like that was the first place where you'd tend to see weakness. In addition, due to high mintage, a lot of the coins are bagmarked. In addition, you have a problem with milk spots, which plagued many of the 1960's issues. That being said, you can still find extremely nice looking 60P's and maybe the odd 60D which will blow the socks off type collectors, but you have to search patiently for these issues.

Frank

dan1ecu

I appreciate the comments!

Lucy, that is a nice 51-D!

Dan