Overall, light wear on the highest areas and not creating large smooth spots defines the Extremely Fine grade. Each series is unique as to the points to observe detecting amounts of wear. Mint State defines the coin remains with original surfaces without any removal of the fine texture of luster imparted at the time of minting.Įxtremely Fine Grade: High points to designs on coins are the first areas to show signs of wear. Mint State Grade: If no wear is detected on the surface of a half dollar a grade of Mint State is awarded. Among collectors and dealers these grades are used to define stages of wear and show on listings of value charts. Each stage of wear is noted by a "grade". Heavy wear from time in circulation is at the low end of the condition scale. A coin with no wear to the surface is as it left the mint. Levels of condition have a range depending on the amount of wear. Step 3: | Grading Condition | Half Dollar Values are ConditionalĬondition of your coin is the next important factor in determining half dollar value. Visit the series page for value charts and details on how to recognize mintmarks specific to each series. □Step 1 above are image links to match your coin. Each is listed separately on value charts. Generally, a mint marked half is the scarce coin of the year.Ĭollecting by year and mintmark combination is an important part in building a set of half dollars. Each mint striking different quantities and having different levels of scarcity. Often two to three different mints struck half dollars per year. "CC" Carson City and "D" is the mintmark identifying Denver. As part of the design on the reverse an "S" is the San Francisco mintmark. ![]() By the mid 1850's the San Francisco added coinage, followed by Carson City in 1870, and Denver in 1906.Įach branch mint used a mintmark on its coinage to indicate production from that mint. This added production and increased numbers per year and also created a separate collectible variety. And keep in mind that you can reach us by email at if you would like to sell your coins.New Orleans mint began striking halves for circulation in 1839. Please read our guides below for more information. It is important to value each coin on its own individual merits. Seated liberty half dollars from 1878 to 1890 have some low mintages and are generally tough to find. The rarest coins that still exist are the 17 halves. None of those coins are thought to have survived. ![]() What are the rarest silver 50 cent coins? If you don’t count over-dates, proofs, and strange varieties then the rarest half dollar coin is the 1873-S with no arrows. It is also worth mentioning that JFK half dollars from 1965 to 1970 are made up of 40% silver instead of 90% silver. With that said, the majority of older half dollars you might find tucked away in a relative’s sock drawer are likely just worth their silver weight. Other coins will be in nice condition and rare because of their year and mint mark those high grade and rare coins will be valued based on their collector value and not their silver value. It is important to remember that many coins will have circulated to the point that they have lost some silver content so they will be worth less than melt. 361 to get the “melt” value of the half dollar. So you can take the price of silver per ounce and multiple it by. ![]() Every half dollar minted for the years 1892 to 1964 has. However, it is helpful to know the silver content for 50 cent coins minted after 1891. How much silver is in an old half dollar? There is no quick cheat sheet to instantly know the value of any half dollar silver coin. It is worth mentioning that all circulation strike Kennedy half dollars from 1971 and later are just worth their face value of 50 cents. It is rare to see a half dollar in circulation today (not that the coins themselves are rare). So you can enjoy the coins in hand without magnification. The half dollar is also a fairly large coin. A type set means a collection that consists of one example of all of the different major half dollar coin designs. First off, it is not cost prohibitive to put together a complete type set. ![]() Half dollar silver coins are popular with collectors for a couple of different reasons.
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