1948 Franklin Half Dollar Value

Silver content

1948 mintage by mint

• 1948: Coin World names the 1948, 1949-S, 1953 and 1955 as the key dates of the series 'based on mintage figures', Wikipedia prints the same four with a footnote citing Coin World, and coincollecting.com repeats the list. This is the third-lowest business-strike mintage of the series, and the four named are exactly its four lowest, which is why none of them carries a key-date flag here: this dataset does not flag an issue from mintage size. CoinWeek's collector guide and Gainesville Coins both say the series has no date rarities at all.
• 1948-D: The Walking Liberty half dollar ended in 1947, and the Bureau of the Mint compilation counts half dollars by calendar year without separating designs, so 1948 could in principle have hidden some of it. It does not. The compilation reports 3,026,819 half dollars at Philadelphia, 4,048,605 at Denver and 20,005 at San Francisco for calendar 1948, and the Director of the Mint's report for that year splits every one of those figures: regular halves of 3,006,814 at Philadelphia and 4,028,600 at Denver, plus exactly 20,005 Booker T. Washington commemorative halves at each of the three mints. Nothing is left over for a Walking Liberty half dated 1948. San Francisco struck no Franklin halves at all in 1948; its entire half-dollar output that year was the commemorative.

Ranked by circulation mintage against all 35 Franklin Half Dollar issues struck 1948 to 1963, lowest first:

• 1948 (Philadelphia): 3rd lowest of 35
• 1948-D (Denver): 5th lowest of 35

Key dates: Price guides name four key dates for this series, and it is worth saying why none of them is flagged here. Coin World writes that "Based on mintage figures, the key dates in the series are 1948, 1949-S, 1953 and 1955 coins". Wikipedia prints the same four, but the footnote on that sentence cites Coin World, so the two are one witness rather than two, and coincollecting.com repeats the list without offering a reason of its own. Those four issues are also exactly the four lowest business-strike mintages of the series, so what is on offer is a mintage ranking relabelled, and this dataset never flags a key date from mintage size. The specialist sources disagree outright: CoinWeek's collector guide says Franklin half dollars "were produced in significant quantities and there are no date rarities in the series", and Gainesville Coins writes that no regular-issue business-strike Franklin half dollar can be considered truly rare. Both put the series' scarcity in strike quality instead. Coin World and Wikipedia each add that Franklin halves were heavily melted for their silver, so some dates are scarcer today than their mintages suggest.

Calculate a batch of Franklin Half Dollars

The calculator opens on the Franklin Half Dollar. Enter how many coins you have, or how much face value, to get the total silver weight and melt value at the current spot price.

Questions about the 1948 Franklin Half Dollar

How much silver is in a 1948 Franklin Half Dollar?

A 1948 Franklin Half Dollar is 90% silver and contains 0.3617 troy ounces of pure silver as struck. Circulated coins have lost a little to wear, so the trade prices them at 0.715 troy oz per $1 of face value, or 0.3575 troy oz for this coin.

What is a 1948 Franklin Half Dollar worth?

Its silver melt value is shown at the top of this page and is recalculated from the live silver spot price each time the page loads. Coins in collector grades can be worth more than melt, which depends on condition and is not covered here.

How many 1948 Franklin Half Dollars were made?

7,035,414 were struck for circulation across 2 mints. Philadelphia struck 3,006,814 with no mintmark. Denver struck 4,028,600 with a D mintmark.

Is the 1948 Franklin Half Dollar a key date?

No. No issue of the Franklin Half Dollar series is flagged as a key date here. Price guides name four key dates for this series, and it is worth saying why none of them is flagged here. Coin World writes that "Based on mintage figures, the key dates in the series are 1948, 1949-S, 1953 and 1955 coins". Wikipedia prints the same four, but the footnote on that sentence cites Coin World, so the two are one witness rather than two, and coincollecting.com repeats the list without offering a reason of its own. Those four issues are also exactly the four lowest business-strike mintages of the series, so what is on offer is a mintage ranking relabelled, and this dataset never flags a key date from mintage size. The specialist sources disagree outright: CoinWeek's collector guide says Franklin half dollars "were produced in significant quantities and there are no date rarities in the series", and Gainesville Coins writes that no regular-issue business-strike Franklin half dollar can be considered truly rare. Both put the series' scarcity in strike quality instead. Coin World and Wikipedia each add that Franklin halves were heavily melted for their silver, so some dates are scarcer today than their mintages suggest.

Is a 1948 half dollar silver?

Yes. Every Franklin Half Dollar struck from 1948 through 1963 is 90% silver.