United States: 1938-D silver Walking Liberty half dollar

United States: 1938-D silver Walking Liberty half dollar

PCGS MS65. Cert. #45620755.

Numista-4455, Krause-Mishler-142.

Mintage: 491,600.

Ex-David Lawrence Rare Coins, auction Lot #7189, 26 March 2023. Purchased in the slab.

The Walking Liberty half dollar was designed by sculptor and engraver Adolph Weinman and issued from 1916 to 1947. The 1938-D is a semi-key date for the series, with under a half million struck. This Gem MS65 example is over a dozen times more valuable than the most common date in the same grade would be.

This coin is mostly white with nice cartwheel luster, and represents perhaps the only time I have owned a semi-key or key-date coin that also happened to be in high enough grade for optimal use as a type example. 1938 also happens to be my father's birthyear.



150000

 

I've been trying to sell this coin for close to my $1,500 cost, but upon checking eBay for comparisons this morning, I came to the sobering realization that you can get a PCGS MS65 in the $1,100-ish range. So it seems I'm "buried" in this one.

Oh well. That's OK, because I'm perfectly content to keep it. I was just thinking of selling it so that I could downgrade to a more common date example as a type coin (but maybe in MS66), and then use the remaining proceeds for other things.

Guess I'll hang onto this one for a while, then, unless I get a tempting swap offer. There's certainly nothing wrong with that- it is a very nice coin.