GTG: 1954 S Franklin

Agree. In general, I think Tru Views show the coin in it's most flattering "light". I understand it in a way, but I'm not a big fan of them.

 

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From the TruView, it looks 65FBL (it meets PCGS's lax "standards," but it wouldn't be FBL at NGC).

From the slab pics, 64 looks like the right grade.

 

That cheek hit is the cause for the lower grade in my opinion. But it really is a nice coin.

 

There are some pretty significant hits to the bell. You can see them in the truview. By itself, the hit on the cheek wouldn't drop it to 64. I'm guessing, in hand, the hits on the bell look even more severe - enough that many would have guessed 63 with an honest picture.

 

Did the market for Franklin's hit an air pocket back in 2009 ? I saw a thread over at CU saying some Franklins and FBL's were down 60-80% from a few years earlier. Was there a bubble in that coin or the overall market that I didn't see in Morgan's or Saints ?

 

Franklins have been in a long term decline. I started collecting them in the late 1980's, and they have been in a slide ever since. Part of it is due to gradeflation, but IMO most of it is that there are not enough collectors for the number of coins out there.

 

Gotcha....then why did they apparently get hot in the early-2000's ?

There was also a great thread over at CU talking about 1 guy showing how a Franklin FBL got moved up 2 grades over time and multiplying it's value over 20-40x. Unfortunately, I can't find the thread.

 

They are a series that can get promoted.

On the flip side, IMO they are also great series in that it's relatively short, 35 business strike pieces total, and relatively inexpensive even in MS63. I think the design is not everyone's cup of tea, but they are big hunks of silver, and with a modicum of patience you can find some very pleasantly toned ones for not much money.

 

Yes, in the mid-2000's, Franklins were hot. Unfortunately, this was around the time that I was building my set. I started in the early '00's. Things started getting expensive around '08-'10, around the time that I finished my set and started looking for upgrades. This was in the middle of a relatively slow period for the coin market as a whole, if I recall correctly. I stopped buying Franklins in '10-'11, and then sold my set in '12. The prices had collapsed by that point, and I was disappointed. I haven't followed Franklins as closely since then, so I'm not familiar with where they are now.

Short answer: Franklins have been unpopular for a long time, but they were a bit hotter than normal in the mid '00's, and have since fallen back down.