229 years ago today
1630Boston
Posts: 13,772 ✭✭✭✭✭
229 years ago today, Ben Franklin died. - Post a Franklin Half
The only one that I own
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
5
Comments
My type example:
I believe he is buried just across the street from the current Philadelphia mint.
Sorry I'm at work and this is the best I can come up with.
"To Be Esteemed Be Useful" - 1792 Birch Cent --- "I personally think we developed language because of our deep need to complain." - Lily Tomlin
If only we had comparable intellects such as Franklin and Jefferson in government today...Cheers, RickO
Jefferson was an intellectual, of course, but he was fairly incompetent in handling his money. His estate was in shambles at his death, mortgaged to the hilt. Jefferson's earlier sale of his personal library to the Library of Congress was little more than a public bailout. Jefferson had very very little to leave to his heirs.
Click on this link to see my ebay listings.
Looks like Stonewall Franklin.
POST NUBILA PHOEBUS / AFTER CLOUDS, SUN
Love for Music / Collector of Dreck
I don't care for toned coins, but I can see where many would like that coin, very nice
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
I picked this up from one of @airplanenut 's charity auctions many, many years ago. I suspect I chose it as it is my birth year, it is the only slabbed Ben I own.
Joseph J. Singleton - First Superintendent of the U.S. Branch Mint in Dahlonega Georgia
Findley Ridge Collection
About Findley Ridge
Thanks! Color coins are my passion of late.
Correct
U.S. Type Set
Successful BST transactions with forum members thebigeng, SPalladino, Zoidmeister, coin22lover, coinsarefun, jwitten, CommemKing.
In honor of Ben.
At first, I thought you were giving me a birthday thread, but I damn sure ain't no 229 years old!!!!
(even if I look it )
Then, I see it is a death thread....now, I'm glad it isn't mine.....
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
I love half dollars. But I can't afford to collect them all. This beauty went to a forum member. I know I'll regret it.
Lance.
@SanctionII I always enjoy seeing those sets!!
Tibor.
Thanks for the props.
Proof Franklins with frosted devices on both sides and mirrored fields can still be found raw in the wild at a cost much lower than slabbed coins. However it takes time an effort to find suitable examples of these coins, particularly the dates other than 1956 (Type 2), 1962 and 1963. For the 1950-1954 dates finding raw coins with two sided frost on the devices and mirrored fields that have positive eye appeal is difficult as most are hairlined, marked and/or possess ugly toning.
The 1949-S Franklin has been the #1 coin in the set at one time or another, but not now.
This is labeled "Cameor"
I read a reprint article from a 1948 issue of The Numismatist that there was a dinner and celebration hosted by Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross which marked the introduction of the Franklin Half Dollar. Each guest received a 1948 half dollar mounted on a card at the end of the event. I have never seen nor heard of any of these cards coming on the market or even heard of one in any museum’s holdings. Has anyone ever seen one of these pieces?
On April 29, 1948, the eve of nationwide distribution, the Franklin half dollar made its debut at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Two hundred guests attended a reception and dinner. Each guest received a place card to which was affixed one of the coins. Mint Director Nellie Tayloe Ross autographed the cards.
"For a coin as important as the 50-cent piece, the Commission recommends a limited competition in which some of the ablest medallists of the country would be invited to participate. What Saint-Gaudens, Fraser, Weinman and MacNeil have accomplished in producing notable designs for coins that are acknowledged as works of art, could be repeated in this instance."
Ross presented the Franklin Institute with President Harry Truman's gift of two Franklin half dollars embedded in plastic. Dr. Henry Butler Allen, executive vice president and secretary of the Institute, accepted the gift as a permanent exhibit.
"The coinage act empowers the director of the Mint to change the design of any coin, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury, but specifies that a change may not be made more often than once in 25 years, and then it is not mandatory," Ross had said at the banquet. Few people at the 1948 commemorative dinner would have guessed that the Franklin half dollar, introduced with great fanfare, would fall far short of the statutory life. Special legislation killed the design and replaced it with the Kennedy half dollar in 1964.
fantastic PCGS article here https://www.pcgs.com/News/The-Franklin-Half-Dollar/
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
@1630Boston Thanks for the info on the Franklin half. Learning.