Franklin Half Instructional Series #13: 1952S Half Dollar
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Franklin Half Instructional Series #13: 1952S Half Dollar.
This is the thirteenth installment of my instructional series on Franklin Halves. As I have time, I will add an excerpt on one of the coins of the series, and hopefully those of you who are interested in Franklins will add your own observations and pictures. By the end of the series we should wind up with a pretty comprehensive study of the Franklin series, along with some nice pictures as well. And who knows, maybe some other folks will do the same for other series!
Sources for this series generally include “An Analysis of Gem Franklins” by Jack Ehrmantraut and “The Complete Guide for Franklin Halves” by Rick Tomaska – two books which I feel every serious Franklin collector should read
1952S
The 1952 issue from the San Francisco Mint was plagued with problems. It is easily one of the worse issues from San Francisco, second only to the 1953S in lack of detail. Even though mintage was only 5,526,000, this is one of the toughest dates to find fully struck and with good eye appeal. Luster on the 1952S tends to range from below average to worse. Generally these pieces will have a grainy look to them; most likely this is the result of worn dies. As is the case with most Franklin issues however, every once in a while you will find a stunning piece that makes the hunt for gems worth your while. When I consider poorly struck dates, I will include these two issues with the 1961 through 1963 issues from Philadelphia. Bell line and hair feature is generally very weak.
One positive with respect to this date, is that you can find some nice pieces in MS66 with little difficulty. Apparently the 1951-53 San Francisco coins were handled gently at the mint, and perhaps hoarded in some numbers by collectors. When you run into the rare original roll of 52S halves, they will tend to yield one or two gem coins, though finding a Full Bell Line coin will be something of a miracle. Mint set coins tend to have a dull blue/gray tone to them, though every once in a while you will find nicely toned pieces displaying very nice blues, gold, and russet colors. Bag marks for this issue tend to be lower than the Denver and Philadelphia runs, but again, the quality of the strike tends to be very poor.
Current population numbers from PCGS read as follows:
MS63 and lower 124 in non FBL and 24 in FBL
MS64 - 616 in non FBL and 241 in FBL
MS65 - 797 in non FBL and 161 in FBL
MS66 - 112 in non FBL and 18 in FBL
MS67 – 0 in FBL
The population reports show that gem pieces in MS64 through MS66 can be had fairly readily; however hunting for an eye appealing piece is another issue all together. The pop report also confirms that MS65FBL and MS66FBL pieces have increased significantly over the past year to year and a half. I attribute a good number of these to resubmission without returning the old tag. Why do I say this? Next time you’re at a major show, try hunting down a gem 1952S in MS65FBL. The likelihood is that you’ll run into more 1909SVDB cents and 1916D Mercs than you will this issue.
When found, an MS64FBL piece can often be bought for around $200-$250, while MS65FBL pieces will generally run anywhere from $600 on up, depending on eye appeal. The rare MS66FBL pieces tend to range in the mid $2000 range on up. For more information on this date you can look the coin up in the Coinfacts page, which also sites significant sales appearances over the past few years. This information can be found HERE. I will continue to post the COINFACTS site for reference, but I am in no way promoting their products or services.
A side note that I’d like to make with regard to this issue is with regard to the bell lines. This is the first issue in the series where the bell lines start coming out very faintly, and it really behooves the collector to take a darned close look at anything that lays claim to FBL status.
Above you see two pictures of full bell line coins. The first is a picture of the bell lines on a 1951D, the second is a picture of a 1952S. Although not the greatest pictures, both coins in hand do actually display both sets of bell lines completely. However, the bell lines on the 52S are much fainter than on the 51D. The best way to think of this for me would be if someone took a piece of wood and drew Franklin bell lines on it lightly with a pencil in one instance, and then in the next they carved them out with a chisel. The bottom line for collectors is that you want to look at the bell lines for this issue extremely carefully. Given the price jump from MS65 to MS65FBL, collectors will want to make sure that the lines are nicely formed and that they go all the way through. In his book Ehrmantraut states that perhaps only 100 pieces existed of this date with Full Bell Lines. That’s a fairly strong statement for a coin with a mintage in excess of 5 million. As such, when shopping for this date, especially raw, you have to take a really close look at those bell lines, and stay away from those coins where you have to use a “little imagination and wishful thinking” to see the bell lines. Have fun collecting Frankies!
1952S in MS65FBL from The Birmingham Collection
This is the thirteenth installment of my instructional series on Franklin Halves. As I have time, I will add an excerpt on one of the coins of the series, and hopefully those of you who are interested in Franklins will add your own observations and pictures. By the end of the series we should wind up with a pretty comprehensive study of the Franklin series, along with some nice pictures as well. And who knows, maybe some other folks will do the same for other series!
Sources for this series generally include “An Analysis of Gem Franklins” by Jack Ehrmantraut and “The Complete Guide for Franklin Halves” by Rick Tomaska – two books which I feel every serious Franklin collector should read
1952S
The 1952 issue from the San Francisco Mint was plagued with problems. It is easily one of the worse issues from San Francisco, second only to the 1953S in lack of detail. Even though mintage was only 5,526,000, this is one of the toughest dates to find fully struck and with good eye appeal. Luster on the 1952S tends to range from below average to worse. Generally these pieces will have a grainy look to them; most likely this is the result of worn dies. As is the case with most Franklin issues however, every once in a while you will find a stunning piece that makes the hunt for gems worth your while. When I consider poorly struck dates, I will include these two issues with the 1961 through 1963 issues from Philadelphia. Bell line and hair feature is generally very weak.
One positive with respect to this date, is that you can find some nice pieces in MS66 with little difficulty. Apparently the 1951-53 San Francisco coins were handled gently at the mint, and perhaps hoarded in some numbers by collectors. When you run into the rare original roll of 52S halves, they will tend to yield one or two gem coins, though finding a Full Bell Line coin will be something of a miracle. Mint set coins tend to have a dull blue/gray tone to them, though every once in a while you will find nicely toned pieces displaying very nice blues, gold, and russet colors. Bag marks for this issue tend to be lower than the Denver and Philadelphia runs, but again, the quality of the strike tends to be very poor.
Current population numbers from PCGS read as follows:
MS63 and lower 124 in non FBL and 24 in FBL
MS64 - 616 in non FBL and 241 in FBL
MS65 - 797 in non FBL and 161 in FBL
MS66 - 112 in non FBL and 18 in FBL
MS67 – 0 in FBL
The population reports show that gem pieces in MS64 through MS66 can be had fairly readily; however hunting for an eye appealing piece is another issue all together. The pop report also confirms that MS65FBL and MS66FBL pieces have increased significantly over the past year to year and a half. I attribute a good number of these to resubmission without returning the old tag. Why do I say this? Next time you’re at a major show, try hunting down a gem 1952S in MS65FBL. The likelihood is that you’ll run into more 1909SVDB cents and 1916D Mercs than you will this issue.
When found, an MS64FBL piece can often be bought for around $200-$250, while MS65FBL pieces will generally run anywhere from $600 on up, depending on eye appeal. The rare MS66FBL pieces tend to range in the mid $2000 range on up. For more information on this date you can look the coin up in the Coinfacts page, which also sites significant sales appearances over the past few years. This information can be found HERE. I will continue to post the COINFACTS site for reference, but I am in no way promoting their products or services.
A side note that I’d like to make with regard to this issue is with regard to the bell lines. This is the first issue in the series where the bell lines start coming out very faintly, and it really behooves the collector to take a darned close look at anything that lays claim to FBL status.
Above you see two pictures of full bell line coins. The first is a picture of the bell lines on a 1951D, the second is a picture of a 1952S. Although not the greatest pictures, both coins in hand do actually display both sets of bell lines completely. However, the bell lines on the 52S are much fainter than on the 51D. The best way to think of this for me would be if someone took a piece of wood and drew Franklin bell lines on it lightly with a pencil in one instance, and then in the next they carved them out with a chisel. The bottom line for collectors is that you want to look at the bell lines for this issue extremely carefully. Given the price jump from MS65 to MS65FBL, collectors will want to make sure that the lines are nicely formed and that they go all the way through. In his book Ehrmantraut states that perhaps only 100 pieces existed of this date with Full Bell Lines. That’s a fairly strong statement for a coin with a mintage in excess of 5 million. As such, when shopping for this date, especially raw, you have to take a really close look at those bell lines, and stay away from those coins where you have to use a “little imagination and wishful thinking” to see the bell lines. Have fun collecting Frankies!
1952S in MS65FBL from The Birmingham Collection
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Comments
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Got one question though. If the dates that you speak of were weak in strike and the weak strike shows on the bell lines if you flip the coin to its obverse will it also be weak on the three wisps of hair behind the ear and on the shoulder? To shorten the question, will both sides be weak or just one side? Also could you possibly show me the three wisps of hair that they talk about on a weak strike?(I know these get mushy on a weak strike, I would like to see a comparison good strike vs. weakly struck) Perhaps take a couple of your pictures and put a circle around these areas and post it up. It still is unclear in my melon. (I.E. Im' not that bright LOL) I would appreciate it.
PURPLE!
<< <i>If the dates that you speak of were weak in strike and the weak strike shows on the bell lines if you flip the coin to its obverse will it also be weak on the three wisps of hair behind the ear and on the shoulder? To shorten the question, will both sides be weak or just one side? Also could you possibly show me the three wisps of hair that they talk about on a weak strike?(I know these get mushy on a weak strike, I would like to see a comparison good strike vs. weakly struck) >>
Good question. Weakness of strike will generally shows to different degrees in various areas. The bell lines are the most prominent area to look at for strike strength. I'm thinking that people realized that even as the master die was wearing down during the 50's, the bell lines could still be seen on well struck coins even though other areas of the coin were starting to become less defined. A lot of collectors would use the words "Pass and Stow" on the the bell to determine if a coin was well struck. Another area that has been looked at are the three wisps of hair by Franklins ear - not behind, but rather in front - where we would think his sideburns would be.
Looking at the picture of the two obverses above, you can clearly see that not only was the 52S coin not struck as sharply as the 48P, but you also see that the detail of the hair (particularly on top of the head and where the three wisps would be) has all but dissapeared. The culprits in this case would be A. The wearing down of the master die, and B. A weak strike.
Franklin collectors realized early on that there was just no way to expect to find coins beyond say 1951 or 52, that matched the detail found in 1948 and 49 issues. As such, there is more liniency as to the amount of expected detail on these later dates, because the amount of detail was just not to be found. In other words, when you see an MS65FBL or MS66FBL from 1953 and forward, that's about as good as it got for the series.
So, getting back to your answer - yes - if you see weaker bell line detail, you will also generally see loss of detail on the rest of the bell, and on Franklins' bust.
Thank you so much,
PURPLE!
Again, Thanks for clearing everything up about the strike of a Frankie. Hopefully this info will help others also.
PURPLE!
We'll use our hands and hearts and if we must we'll use our heads.
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