1949 Franklin Half Dollar Value

Silver content

1949 mintage by mint

• 1949-S: 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 fourth-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.

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

• 1949 (Philadelphia): 13th lowest of 35
• 1949-D (Denver): 8th lowest of 35
• 1949-S (San Francisco): 4th 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 1949 Franklin Half Dollar

How much silver is in a 1949 Franklin Half Dollar?

A 1949 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 1949 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 1949 Franklin Half Dollars were made?

13,478,600 were struck for circulation across 3 mints. Philadelphia struck 5,614,000 with no mintmark. Denver struck 4,120,600 with a D mintmark. San Francisco struck 3,744,000 with an S mintmark.

Is the 1949 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 1949 half dollar silver?

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